Abstract

BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE) commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the Layer 2 performance and power consumption of its RackSwitch G8100 and G8124 10G Low Latency Switches with 24 10GbE ports — designed for top-of-rack aggregation for the large data center — against a Catalyst 4900M from Cisco Systems, Inc.

Tolly Group engineers measured the Layer 2 throughput, latency and multicast performance of the switches in a variety of common network topologies as well as the energy usage for the switch operations with and without load. Engineers also compared the price/performance of the switches from both companies.

Tests were conducted in March 2009.

The power consumption tests herein were run in accordance with Tolly Common Test Plan #1080 LAN Switch Power Consumption V1.1. That document is available for license and you can find more information about it on the Tolly Common Test Plan website.