stacking vs chassis

Stacking vs Chassis: Know the diffrence

Categories Blog, Switching
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Comparison Table: Stacking vs Chassis

Below table describes the difference between Stacking and Chassis:

PARAMETER	STACKING	CHASSIS
Cost	Less Expensive	More Expensive
Ease of Redeployment	Easier to resize or redeploy	Not easy to resize or redeploy
Placement	Preferably at Access layer	Preferably at Core and Distribution Layer
Cabling for Redundant power supply	1 PSU per switch is required, hence more power cabling.	Only 1 set of redundant PSU per chassis required, hence less power cabling
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure)	Usually lesser than Chassis	Usually higher than Stack Switches
Failure Rate	Greater failure considering at least as many power supplies at stack members. E.g. – Stack of 6 switches means 6 power supplies to manage hence greater chance of failure.	Lesser power supplies(generally 2) means less chance of power supply failure.
Additional Components	Stacking does not support integration of additional services components like Firewall Service Module, Intrusion Detection.	Supports integration with services components like FWSM module, Intrusion Detection etc.
Physical Space	Less Space consuming	Twice the space of stacks
Pay as you grow model	Supports appropriately	May or mat not apply
Management and Upgrade	Mixing switch models, firmware and software getting all of these variables to match can be quite the task. Adding or removing switches in a large stack can be problematic.	Ease of management and upgrade
Performance	Low on performance	High on performance
Interface Selection	Lesser choice of Interface selection	More choice of Interface selection
Dedicated modules for Data, Control and Management Plane	Yes	No
Source: ipwithease.com

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Rashmi Bhardwaj

I am here to share my knowledge and experience in the field of networking with the goal being - "The more you share, the more you learn."

I am a biotechnologist by qualification and a Network Enthusiast by interest. I developed interest in networking being in the company of a passionate Network Professional, my husband.

I am a strong believer of the fact that "learning is a constant process of discovering yourself."
- Rashmi Bhardwaj (Author/Editor)

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