Abstract

Tolly Group Report #202114 (May 2002) validates Dell PowerConnect 3248 (48 × Fast Ethernet, 2 × GbE) as an enterprise edge switch. Zero-loss tests confirmed the switch forwarded 100% of theoretical line rate for 64-, 512-, and 1,518-byte frames, equal to 13.6 Gbit/s aggregate full-duplex throughput.

QoS under congestion. Engineers oversubscribed four ingress ports to one egress port up to 300% load while enabling Layer 3 DSCP and Layer 4 TCP/UDP priorities. High-priority traffic passed unaffected until extreme 220% oversubscription, where Weighted Round Robin fairly reduced its bandwidth to prevent starvation of lower-priority flows, demonstrating effective per-queue policing.

Frame-rate details. At full load the switch handled 20,238,074 fps for 64-byte frames, 3,195,466 fps for 512-byte frames, and 1,105,307 fps for 1,518-byte frames, maintaining 100% of theoretical maximum across all sizes.

Conclusion: Dell PowerConnect 3248 delivers wire-speed Layer 2 throughput, robust QoS that honors high-priority traffic during heavy congestion and competitive economics, making it a solid choice for cost-sensitive edge deployments that still demand predictable performance.