Abstract

Nortel Networks commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate its Passport 8600 Routing Switch, a core Ethernet routing switch outfitted with 64 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Engineers subjected the Passport 8600 to a battery of tests: steady-state, zero-loss, bi-directional throughput utilizing 64-byte frames at Layer 2 and Layer 3; latency measurements; and QoS functionality.

Test results show that the Passport 8600 delivered wire-speed performance at both Layer 2 and Layer 3 when tested with 64-byte frames. Furthermore, the Passport 86000 demonstrated that its QoS facilities could tag packets at the ingress port and correctly prioritize lower-priority traffic during periods of peak oversubscription, ensuring adequate bandwidth for high-priority traffic while maintaining low latency, which is essential for latency-sensitive traffic.