Gigabit Switch and 100 Mbit peripherals
Hi everyone!
I would like to upgrade my LAN from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, but one of my peripherals (a NSLU2) has only a 10/100 Mbps network card. The question is: if there is a 100 Mbps peripheral plugged into a gigabit switch, will it slow down the gigabit peripherals connected to the switch? Thanks in advance, Luca |
I just did a bunch of performance tests (ping with large packet size while other pairs of computers loaded connections with file transfer) on a LAN with a mixture of 1Gb and 100Mb and was very impressed with the way our Netgear and D-Link 1Gb switches deal with the mixed load. (I was fixing a LAN performance problem with some obsolete Dell and Cisco LAN equipment).
I didn't measure well enough to be certain that everything that could be independent is independent. But to the extent I could measure, it was. A "switch" (unlike older "hubs") should be able run independent paths fully in parallel. Example 1: X at 100Mb talks through switch to Y at 1Gb meanwhile U at 1Gb talks through same switch to V at 1Gb. The traffic from X to Y has no effect on the traffic from U to V. Example 2: X at 100Mb talks through switch to Y at 1Gb meanwhile U at 1Gb talks through same switch to Y at 1Gb. That's the case that I'm unsure of myself. What are the characteristics of speed shift at the switch between the 100Mb link to X and the 1Gb link to Y? If contention from U means X only gets an effective 50Mb path to Y, does that tie up 50% of the potential 1Gb path from U to Y or only 50Mb of it or where in between? But I think you are worried about much more severe effects that don't happen (so don't worry about it). Plugging in a 100Mb connection will do nothing to the other performance on your LAN and sending 100Mb packets won't do enough to matter (if anything at all). |
Quote:
Switches work by creating distinct pathways between the ports when needed. If a device on one port is communicating at 1 Gbps with a device on another port, it doesn't matter whether or not there is a device on a third port that is slower. |
Thanks for your quick replies!
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