Abstract

IBM Corp. commissioned The Tolly Group to test the 3746 Nways Multiprotocol Controller Model 900 running microcode version D46130 connected to a 3745 Communications Controller Model 61A running NCP Version 7 Release 5, and to compare that with Cisco Systems Inc.’s 7507 version 11.1(11) CA (fc1). The tests measured SNA (APPN) routing performance and 3270 interactive session support on both products, as well as IP routing performance on the 3746. In each case, the test measured application throughput between LAN clients and a mainframe across a pair of Enterprise System Connection (ESCON) channels and six 16 Mbit/s Token Ring LANs. Testing was performed in July of 1997. 

The tests show that the 3746 delivers nearly twice the throughput of the 7507 when routing APPN traffic from mainframe to LAN via two ESCON channels and six Token Ring LANs with 4K-byte RUs. The tests also demonstrate that the 3746 supports 16K-byte SNA RUs for even higher throughput. (The 7507 was unable to complete the 16K-byte RU test successfully.) See figure 1.