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Compex PS2216 Switch
Review by Harry Lam
on 02.12.03
Switch provided by Compex,
MSRP: $89.95
Features of the Compex PS2216 Switch:
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| Dip switches on the side |
The Compex PS2216 Switch isn't just a regular switch but also boasts some
high-end features that are only available on more expensive switches (usually
rack-mounted switches for corporate networks). These features are stripped
down versions of their high-end counterparts, but more than adequate for almost
all homes, and even some offices. I'm going to dissect these features in
depth, and explain what exactly they do behind the technical alphabet soup.
- 16 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet Ports Supporting N-Way Auto-Negotiation
This is relatively self explanatory, 16 10/100 Ethernet ports on the
PS2216. N-Way Auto-Negotiation basically allows the switch to detect the
speed and duplex on each port and automatically configuring it to the most
optimal speed. With N-Way Auto-Negotiation, the switch is able to detect
the cable type and speeds on the fly, so both crossover and regular cables
will work with this switch (and whatever type of cable, CAT 3-5).
- Full Bandwidth Non-Blocking Switch Architecture
Basically, this allows every port on the switch to perform at their
maximum speed of 200Mbps a second, with a 3.2Gbps backplane (in their data
sheet, they compare it to the 100MBps backplane of a hub).
- Dynamic Address Learning & Filtering
This feature explains how a switch builds a MAC address table and directs
packets directly from their source to destination, cutting down on both excess
network traffic as well as collisions.
- Complaint with Industry Standards
The PS2216 adheres to the IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3u standards (10Base-T
and 100Base-TX respectively), so it will fit in with all existing Ethernet
equipment (basically a no brainier).
- Small Compact Desktop Casing
This switch is very small, taking a space of about 151 x 92 x 32mm.
- Port Trunking
This is one of the high end features on the PS2216. On most regular
switches, if you want to daisy chain multiple switches together, you have to
use an uplink port, which basically is just a port configured to communicate
with another switch. In the scenario, the communication between the
switches is only limited to 200Mbps (as it's full duplex on a 100Mbps port).
On expensive switches, this is usually implemented via a gigabit port (usually
fiber, but gigabit Ethernet is also used. The PS2216 can use the regular
uplink method (200Mbps) or it can use port trunking with four 100Mbps ports
(giving a max bandwidth of 800Mbps between the switches). Although in
this case, it ties up four ports on each switch, this is a very low cost
performance solution for interconnecting two switches.
The PS2216 allows for two groups of four ports for Port Trunking if you want
to connect a series of switches.
- Virtual VLAN
VLAN functionality is another one of those high end features primarily
found on higher-cost business switch. VLANs restrict the size of a
broadcast domain (basically it segments groups of computers into virtual LANs
(or virtual workgroups). Broadcasts are only contained with each VLAN,
cutting down on the excess traffic transmitted to each node (which also is
something that slows down networks when they're too large). Essentially,
it's like if each VLAN were all connected to different routers and couldn't
directly interface with each other.
The VLAN implementation on the PS2216 is port based VLAN. Basically each
port is on it's own VLAN, and Port 1 is the common port (the port which all
broadcasts get sent to, no matter which VLAN). In a typical setup,
another switch or hub would be connected to each port to form their own VLAN
(and in a way, the switch works as a router in certain functions).
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