Abstract

New H3C Technologies commissioned Tolly to evaluate the performance and feature set of the H3C S6800 series data center switches. The main focus of the project was to validate forwarding performance, energy efficiency, high-availability virtualization features, overlay networking, routing, automation, and data-center-specific capabilities across the S6800 family for high-density 10GE access and 40G/100G aggregation deployments.  

The report applies to the H3C S6800 series, including the S6800-2C, S6800-4C, S6800-32Q, S6800-54HF, S6800-54HT, S6800-54QF, and S6800-54QT. Tolly used the S6800-54QF model for performance testing, configured with 48 x 10GE and 6 x 40GE ports. In RFC2544 testing with Spirent TestCenter, the switch delivered 100% Layer 2 and Layer 3 line-rate throughput for all standard frame sizes and jumbo frames, with zero frame loss, in a dual-snake topology. This represented 720Gbps of maximum demonstrated throughput. Tolly also measured energy efficiency using the ATIS methodology, producing an ATIS weighted power value of 119.7W and a TEER of 6Gbps per watt.  

A major theme in the report is resilience and network virtualization. Tolly verified support for IRF2, which virtualizes multiple physical devices into a single logical fabric for simplified management, resiliency, and scale. The report also validated ISSU for IRF2 fabrics and GIR for M-LAG systems, both delivering software upgrades with no packet loss. H3C S6800 also supported M-LAG, static and dynamic LAG with LACP, and load balancing for unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic.  

Feature testing highlighted broad data center networking coverage. Tolly verified VXLAN Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity, EVPN VXLAN with distributed gateways, centralized VXLAN Layer 3 gateway support, and VXLAN OAM, with capacity for 4,000 IPv4 VXLAN tunnels. The platform also supported OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, OSPFv3, IS-IS for IPv6, BGP4+, graceful restart, non-stop routing, 3ms BFD, MPLS VPWS, VPLS, L3VPN, MPLS TE, and MPLS MCE. Operations and automation features included gRPC-based Telemetry, PTP server and client support, Ansible, Puppet, NETCONF, SNMP, ZTP, ERSPAN, and RSPAN. Capacity validation included 290,811 MAC addresses, 208,000 ARP entries, 104,000 ND entries, and 250,000-route IPv4 and IPv6 FIBs. Tolly also verified DCI for VXLAN fabrics, FCoE, micro-segmentation, service chaining, DCBX, PFC, ECN, OpenFlow, optional MACsec on S6800-2C and S6800-4C with the LSWM124XGT2Q card, and redundant fan and power operation without packet loss. Overall, the report presents the H3C S6800 series as a versatile and resilient data center switch family with full line-rate performance and broad support for modern overlay, routing, automation, and storage-networking environments.  

Switches tested:

• H3C S6800-2C — Compact S6800 series cloud-ready data center switch model with optional MACsec support via the LSWM124XGT2Q expansion card.  
• H3C S6800-4C — S6800 series switch model with expansion capability and optional MACsec support via the LSWM124XGT2Q card.  
• H3C S6800-32Q — Higher-density S6800 series data center switch model included in the validated family.  
• H3C S6800-54HF — S6800 series data center switch model referenced as part of the tested product family.  
• H3C S6800-54HT — S6800 series switch model included in the report’s validated lineup.  
• H3C S6800-54QF — S6800 series switch model used for the report’s throughput and energy-efficiency testing, with 48 x 10GE and 6 x 40GE ports.  
• H3C S6800-54QT — S6800 series data center switch model included in the validated family.