Cisco Systems Catalyst 6513 Review

Behind every medium to large sized corporate campus network is a series of network switches, big black boxes with tens or hundreds of  100/1000 Ethernet ports that route network traffic from one computer and or switch to the next.  All network access runs through switches from a simple document request from a file server to a print job request to a network printer; from compiling a database to accessing the Internet, switches form the backbone of any modern network. 

Bellwether Cisco Systems is the largest manufacturer of network switches and routers in the world; the company dominates the global enterprise switch and router market.  Where once there was Digital, IBM, Bay Systems, 3Com, HP, Compaq, Lucent Technologies, there is now really only one choice for enterprise class switching, Cisco Systems. 

I have worked with several Cisco Catalyst series network switches that route network traffic over a fairly wide area.  But at the center of almost any medium-to-large sized network are a number of Cisco Catalyst 6513 network switches

The Catalyst 6513 Switch

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Family of switches-the company's flagship LAN switching platform-delivers high-performance, multilayer switching for campus-wide corporate networks. Cisco designed the 6500 series to address the ever increasing demands for high-availability (very important especially in Network Operating Center's (NOC's) and data centers), gigabit scalability, and multilayer switching.  The Catalyst 6500 family (6503, 6504-E, 6506-E, 6509, 6513 and 6513) delivers a wide range of intelligent campus solutions, and is robust enough to fit almost any networking need.

The chassis of the Catalyst 6513 is large, black, heavy, and rack mountable.  The power plugs into the front of the unit at the bottom where the dual power supplies reside.  The Catalyst 6513 is so named because it has fifteen open slots for inserting up to (15) networking modules into the chassis. 

The Catalyst 6513 support a wide range of interface types and densities, including support for up to 1152 10/100 Ethernet, 576 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet, and up to 130 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Catalyst 6500 Series provides backplane bandwidth of 32 Gigabits per second (Gbps) on a shared bus, a 256-Gbps switch fabric and multilayer switching up to 30 Megabyte packets per second  (Mpps).

My Viewpoint

As I stated above, the Cisco Catalyst 6515 forms the backbone of many campus-wide distributed networking environments.  Our complement of Cisco Catalyst 6513's are housed in our basement data center.  These switches form the nexus of our LAN and form the backbone of the overall network.  This accomplished via a fiber connection routed from switch to switch throughout the campus. 

Managing the Cisco Catalyst 6513 is pretty straight forward.  Unlike a router, there are no overly completed router tables to configure, nor routes to program.  All that is really needed is an IP address for the switch to identify itself on the network.  Outside of that, all that really needs to be configured are the individual ports on the add-in networking modules; hey can be configured collectively as well.

Since installing the Cisco Catalyst 6513 some three years ago, we have yet to experience any downtime and we run the switches 24/7/365.  There is very little maintenance to perform; most involves cleaning the chassis fan vent on occasion.  The Cisco Catalyst 6513 switch works and works well.  Packet throughput is well within tolerance and actual packet collisions are rare. 

Concluding Viewpoint

The Cisco Catalyst 6513 is not a cheap solution, but it is a reliable one.  Prices for a used chassis run from around $15,000 - $25,000 depending on the age of the unit.  These prices do not include the plug-in Ethernet networking modules.  However, if you need a reliable, scalable, robust networking switch and can afford the entry fee the Cisco Catalyst 6513 might be worth a look.