Catalyst 4224
One of the newer switches to the Cisco line is the Catalyst 4200 Series family.
The Catalyst 4200 Access Gateway series switches allow voice, video, and data to
be offered to the small branch environment looking to deploy IP telephony solutions.
The Catalyst 4224 is a 2U rack mounted switch with 24 10/100 Ethernet
port and modular slots for voice and WAN modules.The same VIC and VWIC
modules mentioned previously for the Catalyst 4000 Series can be used in the
Catalyst 4224.
The 4200 Series was designed for small branch offices to deploy a complete
IP telephony solution, as well as enterprises in a centralized call processing
CallManager model.With a centralized call processing CallManager model if a
remote office loses its connection to the central office where the CallManager is
located, they will be unable to perform any voice calls from that office unless
they have a backup link to the central office or have Survivable Remote Site
(SRS) telephony software. If the company has several remote offices, it could be
rather expensive to have backup links for all these sites.
To provide a more cost-effective solution, Cisco developed SRS, which is part
of the IOS software that runs on a 4224 switch.As of this writing, SRS is also
available on Cisco 2600 and 3600 routers.This technology will also be included
in other Cisco products, such as the Cisco 175x router, and the Catalyst 4000
AGM by Q4 2001. SRS automatically detects a network failure, and using the
Cisco Simple Network Automated Provisioning (SNAP) capability, reconfigures
the router to provide call processing for the IP phones in that location.When the
WAN is restored, the router will shift call-processing functions back to the
CallManager cluster.
Smaller routers such as the 1750, 2600, and 3620 along with the Catalyst
4224 will support up to 24 phones. Meanwhile, the Cisco 3640 and Catalyst
4000 AGM support up to 48 phones, and the Cisco 3660 supports up to 144
phones. Up to two lines per phone are supported per system.