M A G N U M 6 K S W I T C H E S , M N S - 6 K U S E R G U I D E
S-Ring with LLL
RSTP
STP
Resiliency
Fast recovery from a single point
of failure. Ring Master is
responsible for decision making
Multiple points of
failure – each
connected node can
be in stand-by
Multiple points of
failure – each
connected node
can be in stand-by
Software Cost
Licensed per ring
Included in MNS-6K Included in MNS-
6K
Hardware cost
One Managed 6K per ring.
Multiple choices for members of
the ring
Many choices
available, making it
cost effective
Many choices
available, making
it cost effective
Software Alarm
Yes No
No
Ring Size
50+ nodes
NA
NA
Dual-Homing
Supports dual-homing to members
in the ring
Supports dual-
homed device to
devices in the
network
Supports dual-
homed device to
devices in the
network
RSTP/STP Operation without S-
Ring
S-Ring supports non managed switches as long as LLL capability is supported on that
switch. A ring is a special form of mesh network topology. The two top-of-the-ring ports
form an otherwise-illegal redundant path, and standard RSTP/STP causes one of these two
ports to block incoming packets in order to enable normal Ethernet traffic flow. All ring
traffic goes through the non-blocking port for normal LAN operation. This port is
designated Forwarding Port. Meanwhile, there is a regular flow of status-checking multi-cast
packets (called BPDUs or Bridge Protocol Data Units) sent out by RSTP/STP that move
around the ring to show that things are functioning normally.
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