In addition, the BGP routing protocol is now supported which was not a component of IP Base. Another vital area is IPv6 support. IP Services supplies OSPFv3 and EIGRP for IPv6 which are not accessible in IP Base. As a lot of clients are running out of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 support is quickly becoming a high priority necessity for the networks. Yet another significant area is full scale support for PIM for IP multicast routing, comprising PIM sparse mode (PIM-SM), PIM dense mode (PIM-DM), PIM sparse-dense mode and Source Specific Multicast (SSM). The full PIM routing support vastly enhances network efficacy as multimedia, interactive video and business collaborations produce huge traffic growth. Here is another vital improvement which IP Services allows: VRF-lite support is not included with IP Base but it is a part of IP Services. As you may remember, VRF-lite is a good method of segmenting a physical network into numerous logical networks for the purpose of network virtualization. Further included IP Services abilities comprise Web Cache Coordination Protocol (WCCP) and policy-based routing (PRB) support.

Please see below some information on numerous license SKUs, so that you can identify them with ease.

For the Cisco Catalyst 2960 and 2960S switches, the SKU group ending with
-S represents LAN Lite
-L represents LAN Base

For the Cisco Catalyst 3560-X and 3750-X switches, the SKU group ending with
-L represents LAN base
-S represents IP Base
-E represents IP Services

Given below are some sample SKUs.

Switches	LAN Lite	LAN Base	IP Base	IP Services
Catalyst 2960, 2960-S switches	WS-C2960-24-S (24 Ethernet ports, LAN Lite image)	WS-C2960S-24TD-L (24 Ethernet ports, LAN Base image)	N/A	N/A
Catalyst 3560-X, 3750-X switches	N/A	WS-C3750X-24T-L (Stackable 24  Ethernet ports, LAN Base feature set)	WS-C3750X-24T-S (Stackable 24  Ethernet ports, IP Base feature set)	WS-C3750X-24T-E (Stackable 24  Ethernet ports, IP Services feature set)

Conclusion

In case you need dynamic routing for your enterprise access corporate networks, you will have to begin with IP Base. It provides you complete layer 2 proficiencies, plus vigorous Layer 3 features to support your access network with greater scale, performance and network services like protection and application enhancement. IP Services takes you one step ahead with complete scale support of unicast and multicast routing protocols, along with crucial services like network segmentation and IPv6 support for OSPF/EIGRP to allow the complete experience for the next generation modern workplace.

Final Comment

In the old days, your early software options were either the LAN Base or an IP Base license for your Cisco Catalyst 3560-X and 3750-X series switches. You would require an upgrade license to install IP Services. Moving forward, a family of new IP Services SKUs is now offered (SKUs ending with –E).  These new SKUs make it simple for you to install IP Services directly.

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Here we will have a look at four common Cisco IOS Software feature licenses for Cisco Catalyst 2K and 3K switches. A quick proviso before we advance any further: This post is for information-sharing purposes only. It does not embody or substitute any official Cisco product documentation. Product specifications can be modified very hastily and usage of this post is only at the readers’ own risk.

The four common Cisco IOS Software feature licenses for switching are specified below:

LAN Lite:             Enterprise Entry Level Layer 2 Switching

LAN Base:           Enterprise Access Layer 2 Switching

IP Base:               Enterprise Access Layer 3 Switching

IP Services:        Advanced Layer 3 Switching

To be exact, we will focus on the Cisco Catalyst 2960, Catalyst 2960-S, Catalyst 3560-X and Catalyst 3750-X series switches.

LAN Lite License: Catalyst 2960 and 2960-S Series Switches

LAN Lite and LAN Base are the two common licenses for the Cisco 2960 and 2960-S series switches. As the name implies, LAN Lite is an entry level license for Enterprise Layer 2 access switches with a lot of convenient features like 802.1Q trunking, (M)STP, STP extensions, CDP, DTP, UDLD, VTPv2, PAGP/LACP, and LLDP. It also provides support for vital protection features including TACACS+, RADIUS, port protection, 802.1X and DHCP snooping. At this layer, this license does not supply layer 3 routing abilities. Nor does it have advanced protection and management abilities like Dynamic ARP Inspection and advanced Quality of Service (QoS) beyond some basic functionality, like priority queuing.

LAN Base License: Catalyst 2960, 2960-S, 3560-X, and 3750-X Switches

LAN Base is a potent license for Cisco’s Layer 2 access switches. Its wide array of access features encompasses all the LAN Lite features and adds more forceful features such as VTPv3 and FlexLinks. VTP version 3 provides improved managerial control of VLAN topology data and information sharing to minimize unintentional or disrupting changes. It also provides increased VLAN environment support comprising more ISL VLAN support range. FlexLinks increases Layer 2 resilience by the addition of a pair of quickly converging active and backup links amongst the access and distribution switches. LAN Base permits layer 3 routing by the addition of static routing support. A lot of robust protection features are included in LAN Base, as well. Some examples are Flexible Authentication, Radius Change of Authorization and advanced 802.1X functionality. On the management side, a lengthy list of functionalities is available with LAN Base like a broader range of MIBs, Ingress policing, Trust Boundary, AutoQoS, and DSCP mapping.

Conclusion

We are aware that there are a lot of technical particulars here. The bottom line is that in case you possess a basic layer 2 access corporate network with fundamentally no routing requirements and no advanced protection or administration needs, you may want to think about getting LAN Lite. For a majority of enterprise layer 2 networks, LAN Base is the minimum necessity. It allows you a strong layer 2 access network with outstanding network administration, protection and user experience.

Now we will have a quick look at Layer 3, IP Base and IP Services licensing. We reiterate again that this post is not supposed to epitomize or substitute any official Cisco product documentation. Product specifications are subject to change very quickly and therefore using this post for reference is solely at our readers’ own risk.

For many of us who have deployed Cisco switches for a long time period, we may recall the Cisco Catalyst 5500 switches having a Route Switch Module (RSM). This used to be how Layer 2 and Layer 3 were combined inside a singular chassis – in a kludgy manner. Those days of yore are now long gone. The Cisco Catalyst switches these days possess powerful incorporated Layer 3 functionalities. Layer 3 switching and routing are so closely intertwined that they trigger a plethora of interesting conversations. Here, we will focus on the Layer 3 switching abilities of the Cisco Catalyst 3560-X and Catalyst 3750-X series switches.

IP Base License: Catalyst 3560-X and 3750-X Series Switches

Dynamic routing supplies you with corporate network scalability, flexibility and resilience. IP Base is a standard enterprise services license for the Cisco 3560-X and 3750-X series switches having dynamic routing support. It possesses all the Layer 2 features included in the LAN Base licensing, plus a remarkable collection of Layer 3 functionalities like static routing, RIP, EIGRP stub, Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) stub and OSPF for Routed Access. Here EIGRP stub implies that the switch partakes in EIGRP routing as a stub and the EIGRP routes will not be extended to any downstream hardware devices connected to the switch. Also, please take note that OSPF for Routed Access is developed specially to extend Layer 3 routing functionalities to wiring closets. It provides support for only one OSPFv2 and one OSPFv3 occurrence, with a maximum allowed quantity of 200 dynamically learned paths. On the protection front, a large amount of network protection functionalities are provided by IP Base. Some examples are ACLs, Private VLANs, TrustSec SXP, and IEEE 802.1AE (also known as MACsec). A novel and stimulating protection feature is the device sensor.  It is a component of the Cisco IOS software installed on a switch which gathers specific endpoint device attributes and forwards such data to the Cisco Identify Services Engine (ISE) via RADIUS accounting packets. Cisco ISE then implements the suitable policies as a component of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solution. In addition, some more new administration aptitudes have been supplemented to the IP Base image. A great example is Embedded Event Manager (EEM). This is a policy-based framework which permits you to tailor a script for real-time network event discovery and onboard automation. Also, Medianet support provides you the capability to troubleshoot and tailor business applications like video-based collaborations.

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