Introduction

Switch meshing is a load-balancing technology that enhances reliability and performance in these ways:
  • Provides significantly better bandwidth utilization than either Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) or standard port trunking.

  • Uses redundant links that remain open to carry traffic, removing any single point of failure for disabling the network, and allowing quick responses to individual link failures. This also helps to maximize investments in ports and cabling.

  • Unlike trunked ports, the ports in a switch mesh can be of different types and speeds (10 and 100 Mbps, gigabit, and 10 gigabit). For example, a 10Base-FL port and a 1GB port can be included in the same switch mesh.

Switch meshing