Procurve 2824 and 2650 with IBM Cabling system (ICS)

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.lans.ethernet (More info?)

We are using 2824 (Server Room) and 2650 (Workstations) Switches and
connect the Workstations and Printers with Shielded Twisted Pair
Cabling System (IBM ICS)using BATM Impedance Matching Devices (Balun)
BA1236/S. The Speed is 100 MBit. This works fine, but we have one big
Problem. If only one Balun on the Worksation Side is removed, on this
link the Transmit Pair is shortened with with the Receive Pair by the
ICS Connector.
In this case, the link on the switch produces looping frames and the
whole network goes down until the Balun is inserted again.
Cisco Documentation says to this:
---------------------------------
Transmit Pair to Receive Pair Shorting
The IEEE 802.5 UDC contains shorting bars that cause the Transmit
contacts to be shorted to the Receive contacts when the connector is
not plugged in. This "wrap path" is used to maintain the integrity of
the ring when ring segments are disconnected, but it can potentially
cause problems when used in Ethernet networks. This type of connector
can cause a full-duplex Ethernet port, for example, to receive its own
transmitted frames if the connector is not plugged in. Worse, if the
port is part of a switch with a shared buffer design, these looping
frames may adversely affect the entire switch. Fortunately, this
condition can be detected and circumvented by software in most
switches.

This problem has been addressed in all Cisco Ethernet switches and,
although the switch behavior is somewhat different from switch to
switch, the condition is handled without serious network impact.
--------------------------------------------

I have tested this receive pair shorting using a NORTEL BayStack
350/24T Switch. This switch has no problem handling the receive pair
shorting, only approx. 1 packet per second is transmitted, and the
network continues operating without any problem.

MY QUESTION:

Is it possible to configure the ProCurve Switches that they can handle
this Transmit to Receive Pair Shorting properly?

If there is no circumvention for this problem, I will have to replace
my ProCurve Switches by NORTEL or CISCO.