The Cisco SLM224G4S 24-Port 10/100 + 4-Port Gigabit Smart Switch with Resilient Clustering technology (Figure 1) brings increased intelligence and security to the network infrastructure. It offers twenty-four 10/100 Ethernet (copper) ports with four 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet copper.The extensive quality of service (QoS) features of the Cisco SLM224G4S make the solution ideal for real-time applications such as voice and video. The four priority queues, together with weighted round-robin and strict priority scheduling techniques, let network administrators quickly prioritize real-time voice and video traffic over data traffic. Individual users or applications can also be prioritized above others using various class of service options - by port, Layer 2 priority (802.1p), and Layer 3 priority. Intelligent broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast storm control minimizes and contains the effects that these types of storms have on regular traffic.The Cisco SLM224G4S also includes features for network expansion and faster throughput. Link aggregation enables network administrators to create multiple high-bandwidth trunks between switches. This provides reliability because the system will continue to operate if one of the links breaks. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) allows administrators to avoid network loops and to build a mesh of switches to increase the availability of their network. The simplified user interface provides an intuitive, highly secure management platform, enabling administrators to better utilize the extensive feature set of the switch, for a better-optimized, more secure network.