Abstract

Tolly Group Report #202149 (September 2002) evaluated the Dell PowerConnect 3248 (48 × Fast Ethernet, 2 × GbE) against 3Com’s SuperStack 3 Switch 4400 and Cisco’s Catalyst 2950 in zero-loss Layer-2 bidirectional throughput tests that tested packet sizes from 64 to 1,518 bytes.

With 64-byte frames the PowerConnect 3248 reached 87% of line rate (17.65 Mfps) versus 67% for the SuperStack 4400 and 59% for the Catalyst 2950. At 512- and 1,518-byte frames it held 91% of theoretical throughput (12.3–12.4 Gb/s), while 3Com scored 72–73% (9.8–10.0 Gb/s) and Cisco 61–62% (8.4–8.5 Gb/s). Across all three frame sizes this delivers 24–48% higher throughput for Dell’s switch over its competitors.

The 13.6 Gb/s-fabric PowerConnect 3248 therefore provides consistent, near-wire-speed forwarding and millions more packets per second than similarly configured Cisco and 3Com edge switches, making it the stronger choice for enterprises that demand high-density Fast-Ethernet aggregation without sacrificing Gigabit uplink performance.