Laying the pipeline
Five tips for smooth deployments:
Five tips for smooth deployments:
1. Stick to one vendor's switch — and even to one manufacturing lot number
if you can — to avoid interoperability problems and to guarantee end-to-end
effectiveness of management features such as quality of service.
2. Use single-mode fiber cable between switches whenever possible and
limit the use of Gigabit Ethernet on copper cable to server farms, where
cable runs are shorter.
3. Test Gigabit Ethernet switches with Gigabit Ethernet network interface
cards (NICs) to ensure that they work well together.
4. When possible, use a Gigabit Ethernet NIC in a server to save on
the cost of using a Gigabit Ethernet switch.
5. When setting network traffic priorities, use standard rather than
proprietary methods to ensure that the settings will work if other vendors'
equipment is added in the future.
NEXT STORY: DOT, airlines join to pressure Congress