Routing at the network edge

[jdavis1]

Okay, I've noticed that Cisco has announced end-of-sale for the 3500 XL line in favor of the 3550 line of switches. I can order the 3550s with the enhanced image (routing capability) or the standard image (no routing). These switches are access-layer switches (at least in my network). I can't figure out why I would need or want routing functionality at the network edge. What am I missing here?

-Jeff

 

[BuckWeet]

Basically if you have multiple vlans at the edge, and you have computers talking across vlans, then they don't need to go to the distribution layer to get routed.. In the end it saves bandwidth, but adds more admininstrative headache..



BuckWeet