Madge Smart Ringswitch Plus 57-61 Product Datasheet

57-61_ds Copyright © 2003 Madge Ltd. All Rights Reserved. March 2003 Page 2 of 2

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The Smart Ringswitch Plus is part of a product 

line that allows budget-friendly Token Ring 
solutions to be built from desktop to backbone – 
with industry-leading adapters and switching 

Madge backbone solutions support simultaneous 

Token Ring and Ethernet LAN Emulation 
services, allowing ATM resources to be 
commonly accessed by both types of network. 

The Smart Ringswitch Plus is a modular, six slot 

chassis switch supporting up to 36 switched 
Token Ring ports. The switch also supports 
100Mbps Token Ring on copper or fiber, third 

layer services and 155M ATM modules for high 
performance inter-switch connections. 

The Smart Ringswitch Plus has a 1.5Gbps 

capacity backplane. This gives it the power to 
switch between up to 36 Token Rings, 16/4 and 
100Mbps, 10/100 Ethernet, Gigabit and ATM 

uplinks. The Smart Ringswitch Plus is therefore 
ideally suited for large networks with centralized 

servers, and is the right choice for integrating 
Token Ring into a high-speed backbone. 

Smart Ringswitch Plus implements cut-through 
switching, which reduces delays in the switch . 

The result is excellent workstation to server 
access rates, everywhere in the network. 
Additionally, any port on the Smart Ringswitch 

Plus can operate in full duplex dedicated Token 
Ring mode, allowing Token Ring frames to be 

sent and received simultaneously. Servers 
directly connected to the switch can take 

advantage of this operating mode, maintaining a 
double  bandwidth pipeline between switch and 
server. 

Smart Ringswitch Plus supports all frame  

forwarding techniques including Source Route, 
Transparent, Source Route  Transparent (SRT) 
and a unique mode: SRT plus. SRT plus 

combines Source Route and Transparent 
bridging to allow the same ring number to be 

used on multiple  ports, making it easy to 
segment rings without needing to change 

desktop ring numbering schemes throughout the 
network. 

Smart Ringswitch products are managed 
through graphical network management 

software available as part of Madge’s 
TrueView/32 Enterprise ™ management suite. 

Smart Ringswitch Plus fully supports the RMON 
management standard. All 10 groups (including 

the diagnostic Filter and Data Capture groups) 
are implemented in the switch placing it 
amongst the most manageable of all Token Ring 

switch solutions in the marketplace today. By 
supporting all monitoring groups, the Ringswitch 

can perform the function of a monitor probe, 
obviating the need to carry a  probe device 
around the network when diagnosing problems. 

Alternatively, a port on the switch can be 
configured as a port mirror, allowing an 

administrator to set up a  network probe in one 
place yet see activity on any of the Ringswitch 

Plus ports. 

A high level of broadcast traffic absorbs 

processing power in every workstation and can 
bring down the network in fault conditions. This 
wastes valuable resources and costs an 

organization time and money. The Smart 
Ringswitch Plus incorporates Active Broadcast 

Control (ABC) technology, which automatically 
eliminates unnecessary broadcast traffic from 
the network. ABC uses intelligent techniques, 

and is extremely easy to use. The software  runs 
a process to learn the whereabouts of resources 

on the network. IP, IPX, NETBIOS and Source  
Route broadcasts are checked and forwarded 

only to the ports that need to see such 
broadcasts. The software can track or relearn 
the whereabouts of resources that move, so no 

configuration is necessary to keep ABC 
operating effectively. 

Smart Ringswitch Plus provides for VLANs  within 
Source Route and Transparent environments. 

Further, VLANS can be mapped between 
switches using either ring numbering for Token 
Ring connected switches or VLAN/ELAN mapping 

for ATM inter-switch backbones. 

The Smart Ringswitch Plus chassis takes up to 
two power supply units. They can load share and 
in the event of one failing, the other will take 

over, maintaining continuous operation of the 
switch