The Cisco  SRW224P 24-Port 10/100 + 2-Port Gigabit Switch (Figure 1) offers a highly secure way to expand your network. Web-based configuration of the switch is secured using SSL. User access is verified using 802.1X security with a RADIUS authentication mechanism and can also be controlled using MAC-based filtering.

Extensive quality of service (QoS) features makes the solution ideal for real-time applications such as voice and video. The four priority queues, together with the weighted round-robin and strict priority scheduling techniques, facilitate efficient coexistence of real-time traffic with data traffic, allowing each to meet its QoS needs. Individual users or applications can be prioritized above others using various class of service options - by port, Layer 2 priority (802.1p), or Layer 3 priority (type of service [ToS] or differentiated services code point [DSCP]). Intelligent broadcast and multicast storm control minimizes and contains the effect of these types of traffic on regular traffic. Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping limits bandwidth-intensive video traffic to only the requestors without flooding all users. Incoming traffic can be policed, allowing you to control network access and traffic flow.

Other features of the Cisco SRW224P allow you to expand and grow your network of switches. Link aggregation allows multiple high-bandwidth trunks between switches to be set up. This also provides reliability, in that the system continues to operate if one of the links breaks. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), Fast STP, and Multiple STP allow you to build a mesh of switches, increasing the availability of the system.