Alcatel OmniSwitch 8800, 7800, 6600 Performance Evaluation and Feature Verification

Abstract

It used to be that enterprise switch makers could tick off a few performance accomplishments to lure potential buyers. Not any longer. Now, while zero-loss throughput is a necessary performance variable, vendors must step up with additional functionality in the form of advanced traffic management techniques that make the most of bandwidth and reliability features that prove a switch can handle voice and data as reliably as carrier-class equipment.

Alcatel commissioned The Tolly Group to benchmark the performance and functionality of a trio of intelligent enterprise-class switches, lead by the OmniSwitch 8800, an 18-slot high-density chassis switch that supports up to 384 full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet ports. Tolly Group engineers also examined the OmniSwitch 7800 Core/Edge, an 18-slot modular chassis that supports up to 192 full-duplex GbE ports and the OmniSwitch 6600, a stackable workgroup class device that supports 24 or 48 Fast Ethernet ports and up to four GbE uplinks.

Engineers tested the OmniSwitch 8800 to a zero-loss throughput test with 128 ports of GbE traffic flowing across the switch – the Tolly Group’s highest port density test to date. Engineers also tested Alcatel’s OneTouch QoS on all three switches and validated a variety of high-availability features including redundant power supplies, link aggregation, VRRP and support for Rapid Spanning Tree to name a few. All three Alcatel switches were subjected to the same tests, though only the OmniSwitch 8800 was tested for throughput.

Tests show the OmniSwitch products lived up to Alcatel’s claims in the areas of performance, QoS and reliability, earning the OmniSwitch trio Tolly Verified certification in a number of product areas. For complete details, read the Test Summary report.