Ring Topology Setup

[alex-grierson]

Looking at the basics of setting up a redundant ring with either fibre or copper links. Have been doing a fair bit of looking into the whole rSTP side of things and wanted to know what the consensus would be on setting up a simple ring with probably six switches in a dual ring topology. As a general note the network would want to run at 1gb and each switch can be between 12/24 ports.

Can anybody recommend a particular model that they have used for this purpose before? Also, how hard is the general configuration of the switches to get them talking in a ring topology?

The network isn't a enterprise level network, it will be used on arena productions and the like for distributing show data. That said, the old STP speeds are not good enough for this - the network needs to switch paths in much less than half a second otherwise there will be a bunch of handshake issues ect. How do you find the speeds with cisco gear and/or do they have their own protocol?

Any help would be appreciated, if you require further information or questions answered, please let me know.

Thanks guys.

[Atif Awan · Accepted solution]

Please have a look at REP (Resilient Ethernet Protocol). It is Cisco Proprietary but to me it sounds like it will meet your requirements well.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps6568/ps6580/prod_white_paper0900aecd806ec6fa.pdf

Atif

[alex-grierson]

Thanks Atif,

Pretty much exactly what I was looking for on the Cisco front. Is there a reference for what Cisco products contain that technology? I've since only found it on the Catalyst 4500 series and have seen mention of it for the ME 3400 switches. Obviously, the Catalyst is automatically out due to it's size and complexity and cost; all I require is a 1RU or 2RU switch with 2x 1000Base fibre interfaces (ideally, for the REP protocol) and 10/100/1000 ethernet interfaces on the switch (12 ports is fine).

Is there a cisco product out there to do this? Failing that, i'm happy to go for a product that only does 10/100 on the ethernet side but does gigabit rep links.

Any further info?

[Atif Awan]

alex-grierson wrote:
Thanks Atif,
Pretty much exactly what I was looking for on the Cisco front. Is there a reference for what Cisco products contain that technology? I've since only found it on the Catalyst 4500 series and have seen mention of it for the ME 3400 switches. Obviously, the Catalyst is automatically out due to it's size and complexity and cost; all I require is a 1RU or 2RU switch with 2x 1000Base fibre interfaces (ideally, for the REP protocol) and 10/100/1000 ethernet interfaces on the switch (12 ports is fine). 
Is there a cisco product out there to do this? Failing that, i'm happy to go for a product that only does 10/100 on the ethernet side but does gigabit rep links.
Any further info?

Hi Alex,

To my knowledge REP is at least available in ME-3400/ME-3400E/ME-3750, ME-6500, 7600 products. Probably the smallest switch to fit your bill will be a suitable model of the ME-3400E series. What I will suggest is that you discuss your requirement in detail with your Cisco Account team; I hope you have one .

Atif