Huawei Network Switch Stacking iStack Technology
IStack technology is simply a kind of switch stacking technology, which is called Intelligent Stack. To understand this technology, you must first understand the basic network equipment form. There are mainly two types of communication devices in the network: box device and frame device.
Usually, the box equipment is deployed at the network access layer or the aggregation layer with low reliability requirements. The box stand-alone equipment is not flexible enough for port and bandwidth expansion. Adding new box equipment for capacity expansion will change the original network structure, but its advantages are also obvious, and the investment cost is relatively low.
The frame device is generally deployed in the network core layer or aggregation layer, which has the advantages of high reliability, high performance, high port density, and strong scalability. However, due to the high investment cost, it is not suitable for deployment in the edge network near the user side.
IStack stacking is to connect multiple devices through a dedicated stack port or business port to form a virtual logical device. Users manage this virtual device to manage all devices in the stack. This virtual device not only has the advantages of low cost of box devices, but also has the advantages of strong scalability and high reliability of box devices. Stacking technology and cluster technology mentioned later can be used to solve the problem of insufficient performance and single point of failure of a single switch.
Huawei’s S-series switches also support switch stacking and clustering functions. The iStack (Intelligent Stack) stacking technology is supported in the S2700, S3700, S5700 and S6700 low-end switches. However, the stack connection modes supported by different switch series are different (some are connected through special stack cards, and some can be connected through common business ports). Huawei’s isStack stack can support more member switches (up to 9).
Switch stacking is a very effective technology to improve the available backplane bandwidth of ports, expand switch ports, improve switch reliability, and centralize the management of multiple switches. It can combine multiple switches that support stacking characteristics to form an overall switch logically. It can not only be centrally managed through a command line interface and an IP address, but also improve the forwarding performance and reliability of a single switch and achieve load balancing among member switches.
ISACK is the stacking technology of Huawei S series switches. As with other stacking technologies, before the establishment of the istack stack system, each member switch is a separate entity with its own independent IP address and MAC address, which is reflected externally as multiple switches. Users need to manage all switches independently; After the establishment of the istack stack system, all member switches in the stack are externally embodied as a unified logical entity. Users can manage and maintain all switches in the stack with one IP address. By stacking the switches, you can achieve large network data forwarding and high network reliability, while simplifying network management.
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