Abstract

Avaya, Inc. commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the Extreme Networks and Cisco Systems core/edge LAN infrastructure’s ability to deliver “triple play” voice, video and data applications in networks with varying levels of congestion.

Specifically, the test benchmarked behavior when congestion occurs on the “ingress” data path to the switching backplane of the core switch which is more demanding than when congestion occurs on the “egress” port from the core switch back out to the edge. All high-priority traffic was assigned a specific VLAN ID and 802.1p Class-of-Service (CoS) value to identify it to the core switches.

The Tolly Group evaluated two solutions for each vendor. The two Extreme solutions were based around the BlackDiamond 8810 and BlackDiamond 10800 core switches each connected to a pair of Summit 400 edge switches. The two Cisco solutions were based around Catalyst 4507 and Catalyst 6509 core switches each connected to a pair of Catalyst 3750 edge switches. Testing was performed in June 2005 at the Avaya Interoperability Lab in Lincroft, NJ.