Abstract

One-page advertisement summarizing key finding(s) of this test. 

3Com Corp. commissioned The Tolly Group to measure the Ethernet and Fast Ethernet switching and routing throughput of the 3Com CoreBuilder 3500. The Tolly Group bench- marked the performance of the switch in full- duplex mode when outfitted with its maximum 24 10/100 Fast Ethernet ports (four, six-port 100BASE-TX modules). Tests were performed with the following four traffic types: Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 IP routing, Layer 3 IPX routing, and simultaneous Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 IP routing. Seven packet sizes, ranging from 64-bytes to 1,518-bytes, were tested for each traffic type. All tests were run with ports set at 10 Mbit/s and then at 100 Mbit/s, resulting in 56 tests total.

Results show that the CoreBuilder 3500 delivers wire-speed throughput, simultaneously over 24 full-duplex ports, whether switching, routing IP or IPX, or handling combined switched and routed traffic. Furthermore, the switch achieves theoretical maximum system throughput, with- out packet loss on any port.