This month we began shipping our new DMS-1100 Series 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Smart Managed Switches, a family of cost-effective Multi-Gigabit switches. These switches support the new IEEE 802.3bz 2.5GBASE-T standard, which allows for 2.5Gbps data rates to at least 100 meters of Cat 5e LAN cabling.

Why is this important? Since Cat 5e is still one of the most common cable types in the walls and ceilings of most businesses today, network administrators can double their LAN speeds without having to rip out and replace the basic cabling infrastructure already in place.

Until now, IT professionals wanting more bandwidth from a single port had two options: combine two or more 1 GE connections via Link Aggregation, or upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBASE-T). Neither option is all that attractive or efficient, given that Link Aggregation consumes multiple ports, and 10GBASE-T requires Cat-6a or Cat-7 to get full 100m distances. The new 2.5GBASE-T standard is ideal because it only requires one port per connection, and it does not require upgrading the network cabling. And there are additional bonuses – it supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE).

Adoption of the new 802.3bz standard will take some time. 802.11ac Wave 2 Wireless Access Points are leading the way as the first end devices to incorporate this new high-speed interface. Shortly, we will also see other end devices like Workstations/NICs, NAS, Servers, and IP cameras that may also find the new higher speed interfaces beneficial.

At D-Link, we’re excited about this new technology and the opportunities it brings for our partners and end-users. The DMS-1100 switches are ten-port Smart Managed switches that are well suited for the network edge. Each of the eight RJ45 ports automatically detects the speed needed by the attached device and sets the speeds accordingly. Available rates for the ports include 2.5 Gbps, 1000 Mbps, and 100 Mbps. Each switch also supports two multi-speed optical ports, which can accommodate 10GbE SFP+ and 1GbE SFP optical transceivers.

The PoE model – DMS-1100-10TP – provides 30W of Power over Ethernet (PoE) across all eight access ports per IEEE 802.3at standards. With an overall PoE budget of 240W, the switch has ample power to support 30W total across all eight ports simultaneously.

Visit the DMS-1100-10TP and DMS-1100-10TS product pages to see if multi-gig is right for your network.