Layer switch likes the military life

The 288-port GLX4000 series, 4th Generation Layer 1 switch is the latest addition to Curtiss- Wright Controls’ family of LinkXchange products. Housed in a compact 8U chassis, the GLX4000 288 system delivers double the port capacity of its predecessor, the GLX4000 144, and offers expandable crossbar switch performance for defence and aerospace applications.

The 19in. rackable physicallayer switch uses a chassis and blade architecture that provides network designers with a simple and cost-effective way to expand the crossbar switch as needs grow. The system chassis can accommodate up to six hot-swappable, 48-port interface blades configured to support SFP or Firewire (1394B) at speeds up to 4.25Gb/s. The switch can also be configured to accept direct Firewire connections at rates up 1600Mb/s. Because the GLX4000’s blades all connect to a common backplane, the switch’s cross-connect functionality extends across any combination of blades and ports.

The GLX4000 288 provides military network designers with greater flexibility and power. For example, it significantly reduces setup time compared to older patch panel solutions. In addition, the switch enables all devices to be connected under test, after which all topology changes or fault tests can be made through the GUI and CLI.