The 4- and 8-port Cisco® Gigabit Ethernet LAN Switch Network Interface Modules (NIMs) can reduce your company's total cost of ownership (TCO) by integrating Gigabit Ethernet switch ports within Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs). These low-density Gigabit Ethernet switches offer small to medium-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices a combination of switching and routing integrated into a single device (Figure 1).

Integration of these switches with Cisco IOS-XE Software allows network administrators to manage a single device using Cisco management tools or the router command-line interface (CLI) for LAN and WAN management needs. This approach reduces network complexity, lowers maintenance contract costs, and lessens staff training needs. It also simplifies software qualification efforts and delivers a consistent user experience at branch offices. Additionally, these low-density Gigabit Ethernet switching modules enable Cisco's industry-leading power initiatives, including per-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) power monitoring, which enhances the ability of the branch office to scale to higher performance requirements and still meet environmental initiatives for IT teams to operate a power-efficient network.

The 4- and 8-port Gigabit Ethernet LAN Switch NIMs provide line-rate Layer 2 switching across onboard Gigabit Ethernet ports. The 4-port NIM has four 10/100/1000 switched Gigabit Ethernet ports. The 8-port NIM has eight 10/100/1000 switched Gigabit Ethernet ports, with a PoE/PoE+ version capable of powering all eight ports. The NIMs furthermore enable direct module-to-module communication through the use of the multigigabit fabric (MGF).

The new features for the Gigabit Ethernet LAN Switch NIMs include four quality-of-service (QoS) queues per port, Shaped Deficit Weighted Round Robin (SDWRR), dynamic secure port, intra chassis cascading, up to 30W of PoE/PoE+ per port, and PoE per-port monitoring and policing.