The Tolly Group this week released its most recent vendor-sponsored test of a LAN switch: Extreme Networks’ Summit 400-48t.

The switch has 48 fixed ports of 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet and two optional uplinks of 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Tolly found that the switch performs at wire speed - but also found that the switch performs at wire speed through the 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks.

At both Layer 2 and Layer 3, the Summit 400 was able to move 64-byte frames at more than 101 million packets per second, “something we've never before seen from a fixed-configuration (with uplinks) switch,” according to Tolly.

The Tolly Group publishes results of many of its tests for free on its Web site; the tests are paid for by the vendors being tested. I’m relaying information about the tests because many readers have indicated that they are useful.

Extreme’s switch debuted in February, intended to provide Gigabit to the desktop. Network World’s Phil Hochmuth noted at the time that it was the first switch aimed at wiring closets with 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Tolly tested other frame sizes as well, including 128-, 256-, 512-, 1,024-, 1,518- and 9,000-byte frames. All were sent at wirespeed.

The testing company says it awarded nearly 30 certifications, each verifying a different feature of the switch. Some of the certifications were given for the first time, such as for authentication and per-port rate limiting, where certain traffic classifications can be limited to a set amount of bandwidth.

The switch is also capable of supporting VoIP. As Tolly’s report put it, “the Summit 400 illustrates that even in the face of massive oversubscription… voice quality can be maintained.”

For the full report, go to:
http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=204123

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.