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The Building Block

8500 The Cisco Catalyst 8500 is a core layer switch that provides high-
performance switching. The Catalyst 8500 uses Application-Specific Inte-
grated Circuits (ASICs) to provide multiple-layer protocol support includ-
ing Internet Protocol (IP), IP multicast, bridging, Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM) switching, and CiscoAssure policy-enabled Quality of
Service (QoS).

All of these switches provide wire-speed multicast forwarding, routing,

and Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) for scalable multicast routing.
These switches are perfect for providing the high bandwidth and perfor-
mance needed for a core router. The 6500 and 8500 switches can aggregate
multiprotocol traffic from multiple remote wiring closets and workgroup
switches.

The Building Block

emember the saying "Everything I need to know I learned in kinder-

garten"? Well, it appears to be true. Cisco has determined that if you follow
the hierarchical model they have designed, it promotes a building block
approach to network design. If you did well with building blocks in your
younger years, you can just apply that same technique to building large,
multimillion-dollar networks. Kind of makes you glad it's someone else's
money you're playing with, doesn't it?

In all seriousness, Cisco has determined some fundamental campus ele-

ments that help you build network building blocks:

Switch blocks Access layer switches connected to the distribution layer
devices

Core blocks Support of multiple switch blocks connected together with
possibly 5500, 6500, or 8500 switches.

Within these fundamental elements, there are three contributing

variables:

Server blocks Groups of network servers on a single subnet

WAN blocks Multiple connections to an ISP or multiple ISPs

Mainframe blocks Centralized services to which the enterprise network
is responsible for providing complete access

By understanding how these work, you can build large, expensive net-

works with confidence (using someone else's money).

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