The 6500 series of switches is the biggest set of LAN switches that Cisco makes. Yes, Cisco also offers the 8500s and the 12k, but those are usually a big part of a WAN solution with ATM. A 6500-series switch, while it can be an ATM client, is usually associated with lots and lots of gigabit ports going to wiring closets.

Both the 6000 series and 6500 series come in two flavors: one with six slots and one with nine. Since they are next generation 5500s, the supervisor cards actually run the switch. The first slot is where the supervisor card goes (or first two slots if you want redundancy).

A 6509 looks a lot like a 5509, and both share the same basic operating system; however, the 6500s have a lot more that can be done with them. Let’s take a look at the extra capabilities these switches have to offer.

Modules and Ports
Have you ever tried to hook a T-1 to a 5505? It's hard to find a spot to plug it in! The 6500 has a module called a FlexWAN card that uses 7200 VIP cards. This means that your switch with 50 gigabit ports going to 50 closets can also have a T-1 circuit coming in.

Yes, I did say "50 gigabit ports." The 6509 can actually have 130 gigabit ports if you used one supervisor card (two ports) and then load the other eight with 16-port modules. The downside? This guy comes out of the gate with a 32 gigabit backplane. While that's a lot of behind the scenes action, 32 gig isn't going to come close to being able to switch all of those gigabit ports at once. In order to do so, you need something called a Switch Fabric Module. Yes, you’ll have to sacrifice a gigabit blade, but you’ll get backplane capacity of 256 gigabits for your trouble. If you want standard 10/100 Ethernet, you can get it in 48-port modules.

IP Capability
Another benefit of the 6500 series is IP phone compatibility. I’m sure many of our readers are either looking at Voice over IP or have started implementing it. If you have IP phones, you know that connecting them directly to a router gets extremely expensive. 6500s have a module that allows you to plug in the phones, and it will even provide power to the phones.

Increased Security
How do you stop someone from pinging across a switch if they don’t have to cross VLANs? How about telnetting TO the switch without crossing VLANs? The 6500s have some security features that will allow you to filter a packet based on Layer 3 information without the MSFC (Multi-Layer Switch Feature Card, internal router) getting involved. This means you can prevent clients from getting their IP address from a rogue DHCP server! You can do several types of filtering but it all requires that you have a p PFC (Policy Feature Card) attached as a daughter card on your supervisor.

Setting QoS
Finally, the 6500s cannot only use QoS (Quality of Service) information, they can also set certain types. By QoS, I’m not referring to queuing -- that would take place on the MSFC. I’m talking about CoS (Cost of Service) and IP Precedence. This is where bits are set to say just how important a frame is as it travels across the network. Normally, packets that belong to real-time interactive traffic are considered more important. With a 6500 series switch, you can put the greatest importance on Voice traffic, next highest importance on Telnet and way down at the bottom FTP. This way, if anything is going to get delayed, it will be the FTP.

In the coming months, we’ll talk in-depth about some of these features and show you how to get the most out of your high-end equipment. Stay tuned.