Cisco 2960 vs 3560 Switch
2960 series switches are L2 only switches. Meaning that you can setup VLANs but you won’t be able to route between then. 3500 series switches are L3 switches. Hence you will be able to route between VLANs. Basically between 2960 and 3560 main difference is Layer 3 capabilities on the 3560 range.
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| Cisco WS-C2960S-24TD-L |
| 2960-S | 2960 LAN Base | 2960 LAN Lite | 3750-X IP Base | 3560-X IP Base | 3K-X LAN Base | |
| Uplinks | 1 GE, 10 GE | GE | GE | 1 GE, 10 GE (modular) | 1 GE, 10 GE (modular) | 1 GE, 10 GE (modular) |
| PoE | Partial PoE+ | FE PoE | FE PoE | Full PoE+ | Full PoE+ | Full PoE+ |
| Stacking | FlexStack 20G (modular) | No | No | StackWise+ 64G | No | StackWise+ (3750-X Only) |
| DRAM/Flash | 128/64MB & USB | 128/32MB | 128/32 MB USB (2960-S) | 256/238MB & USB | 256/238MB & USB | 256/238MB & USB |
| StackPower | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Upgradable IOS | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Modular Uplinks | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Modular PS/Fan | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MACSec | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Enhanced LLW | Yes | No | Yes (2960-S) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RPS / XPS | RPS | RPS | No | XPS | XPS | XPS |
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| Cisco 3560X-24T-L |
One of the major benefits is the ability to stack a maximum of 4 2960S to form one logical switch. The 2960S, particularly models that have a “D” in it’s product ID (or PID), supports SFP+ 10Gb interface (up to 2 SFP+ or 2 SFP 1 Gb or a combination of both).
Hardware
| Catalyst 2960 | Catalyst 3560 | |
| Auto-MDIX | Yes | Yes |
| Digital Optical Monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD) | – | Yes |
| IEEE 802.3af (PoE) support | Yes | Yes |
| SDM Templates | Yes | Yes |
| Catalyst 2960 | Catalyst 3560 | |
| Errdisable Autorecovery | Yes | Yes |
| Flex Links | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1ab (LLDP) | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1D STP | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling | – | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1Q Trunking | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1s (MST) | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1W (RSTP) | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.1x | Yes | Yes |
| IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) | Yes | Yes |
| Jumbo Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling (L2PT) | – | Yes |
| Per-port VLAN Policing | – | Yes |
| Port Security | Yes | Yes |
| Private VLANs | – | Yes |
| Storm Control | Yes | Yes |
| STP BackboneFast | Yes | Yes |
| STP Loop Guard | Yes | Yes |
| STP PortFast | Yes | Yes |
| STP Root Guard | Yes | Yes |
| STP UplinkFast | Yes | Yes |
| SPAN | Yes | Yes |
| RSPAN | Yes | Yes |
| UDLD | Yes | Yes |
| VLAN ACLs | – | Yes |
| VLAN-aware Port Security | Yes | Yes |
| VTPv2 | Yes | Yes |
| Catalyst 2960 | Catalyst 3560 | |
| Cisco Express Forwarding | – | Yes |
| DHCP Server | – | Yes |
| DHCP Snooping | Yes | Yes |
| DHCPv6 | – | Yes |
| HSRP | – | Yes |
| IGMP Snooping | Yes | Yes |
| IP SLA Monitor | – | Yes |
| IP Source Guard | – | Yes |
| IPv4 Routing | – | Yes |
| IPv6 Routing | – | Yes |
| MLD Snooping | Yes | Yes |
| NSF Awareness | – | Yes |
| Policy Routing | – | Yes |
| Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) | – | Yes |
| VRF Lite | – | Yes |
| WCCPv1 | – | Yes |
| WCCPv2 | – | Yes |
| Catalyst 2960 | Catalyst 3560 | |
| AutoQoS VOIP | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration Rollback | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration Diff | Yes | Yes |
| Embedded Event Manager | – | Yes |
| Enhanced Tracking Support | – | Yes |
| NTP | Yes | Yes |
| RADIUS Authentication | Yes | Yes |
| RMON | Yes | Yes |
| SCP | Yes | Yes |
| SSHv2 | Yes | Yes |
| SNMPv2c | Yes | Yes |
| SNMPv3 | Yes | Yes |
| Syslog over IPv6 | Yes | Yes |
| TACACS+ Authentication | Yes | Yes |
Cisco 3560 X vs 3650 vs 3750-X vs 3850
Feature Comparison:
| Features | Previous Access Switches | Latest Unified Access Switches | Benefits | ||
Cisco Catalyst Cisco Catalyst Cisco Catalyst Cisco Catalyst
3560-X 3750-G (EoS) 3750-X 3850/3650
Bandwidth per stack No stacking 32 Gbps 64 Gbps 480 Gbps (3850) 160 Gbps (3650) Support gigabit access growth for wired and wireless/
802.11ac
10 GE1 uplinks 2x10GE 4×1 GE 2×10 GE 4×10 GE or
2×10 GE
Integrated wireless LAN controller N/A N/A N/A x Enable converged wired-wireless access for operational simplicity and scale
Common wired-wireless features N/A N/A N/A x
UADP2 ASIC for wired-wireless convergence N/A N/A N/A x
Application visibility across wired-wireless N/A N/A N/A x
Hierarchical wireless QoS N/A N/A N/A x
Native Flexible NetFlow N/A N/A N/A x Orchestrate role based access to corporate resources by an user, with any device, from any location at any time
Cisco TrustSec/SGT3 for wired x N/A x x
Cisco TrustSec/SGT for wireless N/A N/A N/A x
Native MACsec encryption Need service module N/A Need service module Need service module
Common features for wired-wireless N/A N/A N/A x Simplicity and business agility
SmartOperations x N/A x x
SDN4/programmability:
•Cisco onePK ready
•OpenFlow ready N/A N/A N/A x
Video/collaboration
•Medianet x N/A x x Uncompromised user experience: assess, monitor, and troubleshot network proactively
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| Cisco 3750X-24T-S |
| New Catalyst 3850 Switch |
Reference:
- Comparison of Catalyst 2950, Catalyst 2960, Catalyst 3550, Catalyst 3560 Switches
- Cisco 2960 vs. Catalyst 3560
- Cisco 3560X, Cisco 3750X to Cisco Catalyst 3850 & 3650 Switches
- Benefits of Migrating to Cisco® Catalyst® 3850 and 3650 Switches
- Cisco Switch Comparison-catalyst 2960 VS 3560 VS 3750 VS 4500 VS 6500
- BRKARC-1009 – Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series Switching Architecture (2015 San Diego)
- BRKCRS-3146 – Troubleshooting Cisco Catalyst 3650 / 3850 Series Switches (2015 San Diego)
- BRKARC-3438 – Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 3650 Series Switching Architecture (2015 San Diego)
- BRKARC-3445 – Cisco Catalyst 4500E Switch Architecture (2015 San Diego)
- BRKARC-3465 – Cisco Catalyst 6800 Switch Architectures (2015 San Diego)
- BRKARC-3001 – Cisco Integrated Services Router – Architectural Overview and Use Cases (2015 San Diego)
- BRKDCT-3101 – Nexus 9000 (Standalone) Architecture Brief and Troubleshooting (2015 San Diego)
- BRKARC-3452 – Cisco Nexus 5600/6000 Switch Architecture (2015 San Diego)