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Don't Blink! You Might Miss The First Gigabit Products

By Joel Conover When "Fast" just isn't fast enough, it's time to think Gigabit. Network Computing recently had the opportunity to test five vendors' Gigabit Ethernet products in our University of Wisconsin lab. These are the first of their kind--literally; some of the units we tested were early production models and first customer shipments. What did we find? If you are considering this bleeding-edge technology for your network, look out. Not all products are created equal; performance and interoperability are key in this early market.

We tested Gigabit Ethernet switching products from Foundry Networks, Prominet Corp. and XLNT, and we tested Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) fr om Alteon Networks and Essential Communications. Other vendors, including Bay Networks, Digital Equipment Corp., Extreme Networks, GigaLabs, NBase Communications, Packet Engines and Plaintree Systems declined to participate because of product availability issues. Heavyweights like Cisco Systems, IBM Corp. and 3Com Corp. had nothing to offer at the time we tested. All of the products we tested, with the exception of Foundry Networks', were in various forms of beta--a fact that did affect some vendors' performance numbers.

For the Report Card on
Gigabit Ethernet Switches
Gigabit Ethernet NICs
Each of the products is targeted at a different market, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. O verall, Foundry Networks' FastIron Gigabit Backbone Swit ch--a Fast Ethernet switch with two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks--offered the most feature-rich and cost-effective solution. Additionally, the Prominet P550 Cajun Switch impressed us with its chassis-based backbone switching solution. On the adapter side, the Alteon Sbus AceNIC delivered unbeatable performance.

All of these products are ready to take on your enterprise when you're ready to take on Gigabit Ethernet--assuming you're willing to pay the price. Early adopters will find that switch ports will cost $2,000 to $4,000 or more per port, depending on port density. NIC prices are slightly better, but expect to pay at least $1,500 for 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps of useful bandwidth.

In addition to testing performance, we looked at the interoperability of these products, both across vendor offerings and within a live Fast Ethernet network. The few minor glitches we encountered were corrected with software or firmware upgrades supplied by the vendors. We also connected the switches to the University of Wiscons in's backbone network via a 100BASE-TX connection. Real clients with real traffic are always a good reality check when testing bleeding-edge technologies. We encountered no abnormal behavior in any of our tests.

Foundry Networks FastIron Backbone Switch
The Gigabit Ethernet industry is filled with start-ups, and Foundry Networks is a rising star in a fast-moving industry. The Foundry Networks line of products includes three specific varieties: two traditional Layer 2 switches, a Layer 3 (or multilayer) switch and a Layer 3 router. We tested Foundry Networks' FastIron L2 Backbone Switch and the L3 NetIron Switching Router. The Foundry Networks products deliver an unprecedented price/performance combo for the edge of your network.

The key strengths of the FastIron switch are its raw speed and excellent price per port. Foundry products are fixed-configuration; t hey feature a singl e expansion slot for uplink modules, making them ideal for workgroup configurations and Fast Ethernet backbones.

The FastIron Backbone Switch is available as a 16-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch. The single expansion port on the front of the chassis supports a variety of expansion modules, including a two-port 100BASE-TX or -FX module, or a one- or two-port Gigabit Ethernet uplink. The FastIron switch has a 4-Gbps backplane capable of switching 7 million packets per second (pps). Plus, there's no configuration that can oversubscribe this switch. Foundry Networks' products are the only fully switched products we tested that could not be oversubscribed.

To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of the Gigabit Ethernet Switches features charts, click here.