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  Switc hing From 10 To 100: Which Switch Is Right For You?  By Chris Lankford with Joel Conover
A typical corporate network is filled with client/server traffic and sprinkled with pockets of high-bandwidth data streams. This, plus the explosive growth of multimedia applications and intranets, puts pressure on the network administrator to carefully plan bandwidth needs. Ethernet switch vendors tout new
ASICs and high-speed processors that promise to add gigabits of switching power to your network. More realistically, switching hubs conveniently solve the network performance dilemma by breaking your network into smaller segments and yielding a higher aggregate throughput on your network. At Network Computing's University of Wisconsin lab in Madison, we tested 24 network switches. It seemed as though every vendor from Accton Technology Corp. to Xyplex Networks turned out for this review--a sign that switch vendors will be fighting to give you the best available price.
What's Really Inside Several products we reviewed differ only in name. Linksys, D-Link Systems and TRENDware each offer the same product in different boxes. The devices from NBase Communications and Intel Corp. were very similar (and we found some NBase ASICs inside the Intel model). Plaintree Systems, Microdyne Corp. and Asantˇ Technologies also had very similar workgroup switches. When we asked Microdyne if it OEMs its product, the company declined to answer; but a quick peek at the back side of the box revealed a Plaintree manufacturing sticker. Products from Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMC), Hewlett-Packard Co. and SVEC Computer Corp. had similar console menu systems and physical layout, although we were unable to discover who manufactures the switch. Those vendors with switches that differed only cosmetically were grouped together in the discussion that follows. Vendors with identical design and layout often have radically different pricing structures. Switches from vendors like Cisco Systems and 3Com Corp., which have bought or engineered their own technology, showed a distinct edge over the competiti on. To level the playing field, we decided to separate this review into three distinct sections: 10-Mbps workgroup switches, 10/100-Mbps high-function switches and chassis-based multifunction switches. 10-Mbps Workgroup Switches
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Of the 11 workgroup switches we tested, 3Com's SuperStack II Desktop Switch took top honors. It is an excellent switch with many features that went beyond what we expected. Switches from Cisco, Plaintree and Microdyne came in a close second. Asantˇ's 5216xp rounded out the best-of-breed workgroup switches, separated from the top by only half a point. Each of these switches provided extensive VLAN capabilities and management solutions that were easy to use. Switches from HP, SMC, SVEC and CNet lacked the VLAN and Remote Monitoring (RMON) support we expected to find in a workgroup switching solution, and, subsequently, came in at the bottom of the pack.
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Updated February 21, 1997 |
