Abstract

Marconi Corp. commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the Layer 2 and Layer 3 interoperability of the ESR-5000, version V52.0, a backbone and/or edge switch. The Tolly Group engineers put the ESR-5000 through a battery of tests designed to reveal the depth of interoperability the switch provides. The ESR-5000 was tested for interoperability with nine other switches from six other network infrastructure vendors.

The Marconi switch was tested for interoperability with the following switches:

• Alcatel OmniCore 5000
• Alcatel OmniSwitch/Router
• Anritsu MultiFlow 5128
• Enterasys X-Pedition ER16
• Extreme Alpine 3808
• Extreme BlackDiamond 6808
• Extreme Summit48i
• Foundry BigIron 4000
• NEC BlueFire 730

Tests included: Auto-negotiation, IP RIP (v1 and v2), OSPF, link aggregation, IPX RIP, VRRP, 802.1p/Q, Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The Marconi switch passed all tests. 

This Tolly Group interoperability evaluation examines the Marconi ESR-5000, firmware version V52.0, as a backbone and edge switch intended for heterogeneous enterprise networks. Tested in July 2001, the report focuses on whether the ESR-5000 can interoperate reliably with nine third-party switches from six other infrastructure vendors in both Layer 2 and Layer 3 scenarios. The test program was split into mandatory interoperability checks for Ethernet auto-negotiation, RIP version 1 and 2, and OSPF, plus optional tests for link aggregation, 802.1p/Q VLAN tagging and priority, Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, IPX RIP, and VRRP.  

Tolly found that the ESR-5000 passed all mandatory tests with all nine peer switches. It successfully negotiated the highest common Ethernet speed and duplex settings, exchanged IP RIP version 1.0 and 2.0 routing tables, and exchanged OSPF routing information across the full multivendor test set. These results indicate that the ESR-5000 can integrate into mixed-vendor networks while maintaining dynamic IP routing interoperability.    

In optional testing, the ESR-5000 also demonstrated broad compatibility. It passed link aggregation interoperability with all participants that supported the feature; NEC’s BlueFire 730 was not tested because it required full IEEE 802.3ad support. The ESR-5000 also exchanged IPX RIP routes with eight switches, with NEC again excluded because it did not support IPX RIP at the time of testing. In VRRP testing, the Marconi switch interoperated with eight other switches, while Alcatel’s OmniCore 5000 did not support VRRP. The switch also passed all nine tests for 802.1p/Q tagged traffic and full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, showing that it could preserve VLAN tags and priorities and support multivendor Gigabit interconnects without packet modification.    

The report positions the ESR-5000 as a resilient multivendor networking platform with wire-speed IP/IPX routing, support for 10/100Base-TX and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, VRRP, OSPF, RIP v1/v2, IGMPv2 snooping, and access control lists. Overall, the evaluation concludes that the ESR-5000 can function as both a primary and backup Layer 3 switch in product-diverse enterprise environments while maintaining strong Layer 2 and Layer 3 interoperability.  

Note: Marconi was acquired by Ericsson in 2006.