Abstract

Extreme Networks, Inc. commissioned The Tolly Group to benchmark the performance of its BlackDiamond 6808 Switch, with 48 fiber Gigabit Ethernet ports. Extreme Networks requested that The Tolly Group measure the throughput of two BlackDiamond 6808 switches when configured for two link aggregation trunk groups consisting of eight ports each, and compare the results with those of a Cisco Systems, Inc. Catalyst 6509 switch with distributed forwarding, in the same testing scenario. Throughput tests were conducted in a partial-mesh configuration across two link aggregation trunks with eight ports per trunk and 16 Gigabit Ethernet input streams B a total of 32 Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports per switch. Extreme Networks also requested that the switches be configured to perform Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP). Tolly engineers conducted tests for 64- and 1,518-byte packets. For a detailed description of the interaction between The Tolly Group and Cisco Systems, Inc., see the Technical Support Diary.