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HP ProCurve Powers A Unified Switching Architecture: Page 3 of 3

SPEAK OUT
Like many organizations, TacDoh is migrating from its digital Centrex service to an IP-PBX and VoIP for internal communications. Supporting voice means applying quality of service to voice traffic, distributing power, and supporting E-911 requirements. Like all switches, the ProCurve switches support QoS marking and prioritization based on marking in the packets or though Layer 4 ports. As long as your IP phones are tagging the traffic they're sending, the ProCurves can prioritize it.

IN DETAIL
FEATURED PRODUCTS:
Network redesign using HP ProCurve 5400zl switches, ProCurve 3500yl switches, ProCurve Premium License, ProCurve Manager Plus management software, ProCurve Identity Driven Manager. Price: $89,573.

ABOUT THIS ROLLING REVIEW:
We issued an RFI to network switch vendors to assess how well their solutions and products would fit a growing network for TacDoh, a fictional company that wants to simplify management, unify its architecture, incorporate VoIP, and add security features. We asked vendors to provide a network design and justify their product selection and price.

ALREADY TESTED:

• This is the first switch architecture of this Rolling Review. Next up will be 3Com.
OTHER VENDORS INVITED:
Alcatel, Cisco, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks

A bigger source of difficulty is support for PoE. Network engineers look at PoE as Ethernet that carries data; building managers look at PoE as power distribution that carries data. The two views aren't completely opposing, but they can be at odds. In any case, PoE, while making cabling easier, does require planning to get additional power and cooling to the switches. Once to the switch, the two 875-watt internal power supplies that ship with the switch aren't enough to power a fully populated switch with redundancy. Another rack-mounted appliance for external power supplies might be needed.

For example, a typical phone requires 8 watts of power. The two 1,500-watt external supplies can power either 144 devices using both power supplies, or 112 phones with the power supplies in a redundant configuration. The ProCurves support the Link Layer Discovery Protocol for Media Endpoint Devices to let the switch adjust the power level on a per-port basis, and provide location information to the phone for emergency services.

SECURITY MATTERS
The ProCurve switches sport advanced security features that augment other security initiatives, such as worm containment, network access control, and partitioning. The ProCurves feature SSH for remote CLI access, SSL for secure Web management, and SNMPv3. These security features are becoming standard on enterprise switches.

Leveraging 802.1x for network authentication, HP's ProCurve also supports multiple, simultaneous 802.1X clients on the same port, where each authenticated host is treated separately from all other hosts on the port.

In addition, users can be placed on individual VLANs and access control lists can be applied based on user authentication. HP suggests adding its ProCurve Identity Driven Manager, or IDM, which also plugs into PCM+, to manage user policies. IDM allows polices to be based on a user role, time of day, or location. IDM also integrates with HP's NAC-800 network access control appliance.