Layer 1 switches offer resiliency: higher-layer technology is interesting, but to ensure uptime, you might want to look at the bottom of the OSI stack.(LOCAL AREA NETWORKS)(Product/Service Evaluation)

Business Communications Review, November, 2004 by Monaco, Jeffrey

As a network engineer, at times I find myself obsessed with building a highly reliable, fault tolerant network. This obsession is tempered by the cost or technical difficulties associated with building reliable networks in certain situations.

In some of my consulting engagements, we've begun working with a new device, a Layer 1 switch, that allows us to extend network resilience to parts of the network that, before now, simply did not allow for a fault-tolerant design. The purpose of this article is to describe some situations where a Layer 1 switch neatly and cleanly solves some vexing design issues.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

First, you need to know a little bit about exactly what a Layer 1 switch is. As the name suggests, this is a device...

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