Nortel markets a data communications line that is enterprise level in function and through put but mid-priced in the data communications market. CPE Labs markets Nortel data switches and networking components to companies of 50 or more networked users. Where the Netgear product line ends the Nortel product line picks up.

Nortel switches have a limited lifetime warranty that is premier in the insdustry. They are managed switches that support CLI or web based management functions. This allows administrators full functional control of the switch, or stack of switches.

Data Switches

There are two basic categories of data switches, stacked and non-stacked. Ethernet limitations only allows for four data switches to be cascaded. This means that for every user in a company they must be connected on a very large density port switch, or there can be no more employees than ports available on four cascaded switches. Stacking switches is used to bind independent switches into a single cascade of ports. Of course, larger "chasis" systems provide the massive port density required for some environments.

Other than number of ports supported by a switching cluster the next determination is at what part of the OSI layer needs to be switched. By definition, switches work at layer 2 - the MAC layer. Routers, by definition, work at layer 3 - the IP address layer. Some switches operate at both layer 2 and layer 3, able to switch based on IP address; or, they provide routing functions.

Nortel Document: Ethernet Routing Switches at a Glance

Although CPE Labs supports the full data line of Nortel products we have provided pages for only a select example of 24 port switches. Follow the Products menu above to browse through the product lines.