wired capacity and switching capacity

[bluesea2010]

Hi,

What is wired capacity and switching capacity  

Thanks 

[Leo Laohoo]

How many 1 Gbps &/or mGig ports to uplinks ratio vs how fast can the switch push those data out.  

[bluesea2010]

Hi @Leo Laohoo 

Thanks a million , whaen you say ratio what does it mean 

Thanks 

again 

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Without additional context, unsure I understand your question.  However, "wired capacity" might be the capacity of a wire to transmit data.  For example, 10BaseT Ethernet can transmit 10 million bits per second.  FastEthernet, 100 million bits per second, etc.

NICs can send (and receive) whatever bit rate the medium defines for its wired capacity.  However, we treat group of bits "special", either, generally called frames (for L2) or packets for (L3).  Processing these groups, though, requires capacity too, and for switches, might be defined as a certain packets per second (PPS) capacity.

For the same wired capacity (i.e. bit per second, or bps), how many PPS, is needed, depends on the frame and/or packet size.  Smaller frames/packets, being smaller, creates the need for a higher PPS rate than larger frames/packets.

Switch capacity specs, will often note a total PSS capacity for the whole switch, today, often defined for the smallest packet size that can be used.

Further switch capacity might define its "fabric" bandwidth capacity.  (Fabric is what frames/packets need to transit between ports).

Modern Enterprise class switches generally have a PPS and fabric capacity that can handle all ports running at 100% capacity.  On older (to very old) Enterprise class switches, or, perhaps, modern non-Enterprise class switches, you might run out of either PPS and/or fabric capacity if you triy to use all the ports, at 100% capacity, at the same time.

[bluesea2010]

Hi  @Joseph W. Doherty 

I was checking cat9k specification to compare with other vendor 

Thanks

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Ah, well when comparing devices between vendors, or even different product lines within the same vendor, there's more to selecting a switch based on its bandwidth and/or PPS capabilities.

Some of the other capabilities might be hardware related, which often makes them easy to compare.

Some of the other capabilities might be "software" related, which may, or may not, be easy to compare.

Some of the other capabilities can be very hard to compare, such as, does it actually work as it's supposed to, and if not, what does the vendor do to correct the issue.

Cisco is usually considered expensive, compared to most of their competitors, but in my experience, unlike many other competitors, their equipment usually works as it's supposed to, and if it doesn't, they usually fix it.

Cisco also often does "things" that improve how a network device should work, yet (usually) not violate standards in doing so.  Such "improvements" can be very hard to compare, as Cisco often doesn't well document them, and they can sometimes be difficult to understand why you might want them (w/o a deep knowledge on the subject).

BTW, don't misunderstand, Cisco isn't perfect, and you can encounter issues using their equipment, but there is a reason why this company went from a small startup to the huge company they are today and why they can obtain the prices, they do, for their equipment and services.