[7] Additionally the ports on the switches incorporates the Avaya Energy Saver (AES) which can manage and dim down (reduce the wattage requirements of each port and/or the PoE wattage) the power requirements to save energy across all switches in the enterprise.

[8] [9] The switches have an integrated time-domain reflectometer (TDR) built into every copper port, providing the ability to accomplish diagnostic monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities of the connected cables.

The developmental history of this system extends back to the BayStack 5000 family shortly after the technology was bought from Bay Networks.

In July 2010 software version 6.2 became available adding Avaya Energy Saver, Bi-directional monitor port, and environmental commands.

The ERS 5600 also has the ability to mix any combination of Switches of up to 8 units or up to 384 ports, whichever is reached first.