White Paper Abstract:
This white paper provides an overview of the Cisco® StackWise™ and Cisco StackWise Plus technologies and the specific mechanisms that they use to create a unified, logical switching architecture through the linkage of multiple, fixed configuration switches. This paper focuses on the following critical aspects of the Cisco StackWise and Cisco StackWise Plus technologies: stack interconnect behavior, stack creation and modification; Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding; and quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms. The goal of the paper is to help the reader understand how the Cisco StackWise and StackWise Plus technologies deliver advanced performance for voice, video, and Gigabit Ethernet applications. First, this white paper will discuss the Cisco Catalyst® 3750 Series Switches and StackWise and second, the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and Catalyst 3750-X Series Switches with StackWise Plus will be discussed, highlighting the differences between the two. Please note that the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and Catalyst 3750-X will run StackWise Plus when connected to a stack of all Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and Catalyst 3750-X switches, while it will run StackWise if there is one or more Cisco Catalyst 3750 in the stack.