Cisco - Fast EtherChannel

Fast EtherChannel

Cisco Solutions

Fast EtherChannel
Ethernet in the First Mile Solution
Fast EtherChannel
Gigabit Ethernet
Switch Clustering Technology

The increasing deployment of switched Ethernet to the desktop can be attributed to the proliferation of bandwidth hungry intranet applications which drive demand for more and more bandwidth. Web browsing, and any to any communications of new intranet applications such as video to the desktop and collaborative white-boarding are increasing the need for scalable bandwidth within the core of campus networks, while mission critical applications call for resilient network designs. With the wide deployment of switched Fast Ethernet in the campus, users are awaiting delivery of standards-based Gigabit Ethernet products to scale performance across their backbones.

Cisco's Fast EtherChannel technology builds upon standards based 802.3 full duplex Fast Ethernet to provide network managers a reliable high speed solution for the campus network backbone. Fast EtherChannel provides bandwidth scalability within the campus by providing increments from 200 Mbps to 800 Mbps with multi-gigabit capacity in the future. Fast EtherChannel technology not only solves the immediate problem of scaling bandwidth within the network backbone today, but also paves the path for an evolution to standards-based Gigabit Ethernet and beyond, because Fast EtherChannel technology can be applied to support Gigabit EtherChannel.