The long wait is over. On June 25, the IEEE approved the 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet standard--nearly two years after its birth. With the eagerly anticipated standard ratified, vendors finally can deliver products to satisfy the tremendous interest that's been building for Gigabit Ethernet technology.

To view the Report cards on
1) Chassis-Based Gigabit Ethernet Switches
and
2) Fixed-Configuration Gigabit Etherner Switches
2) Gigabit Ethernet NICs
While the IEEE was busy rubber stamping the 802.3z standard, Network Computing was putting Gigabit Ethernet switches and NICs from nearly every Gigabit Ethernet vendor--including Alteon Network, Bay Networks, Cabletron Systems, Cisco Systems, Compaq Computer Corp., Extreme Networks, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Lucent Technologies, ODS Networks, Packet Engines, Silicon Graphics and 3Com Corp.--through one of the most rigorous test suites in the magazine's history.

Our expectations for this review were high. For the switch portion, only products with Gigabit Ethernet interfaces were eligible. We required each vendor to submit two or more units with a total of at least 96 10/100 ports. We put each switch through a battery of tests using Netcom Systems' Smartbits test equipment. Implementing one of the largest test setups we've ever created, we bit-blasted each device to determine how much traffic it could handle. Then we turned off the bit-blasters and focused on performance aspects that affect networks like yours. (For details about our tests, see "Speeds and Feeds," page 76, and "Real World, Real Fibers," page 82.)

We took each vendor's equipment into the wiring closets at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and tested it on real fibers, pushing the distance limitations of Gigabit Ethernet over multimode fiber. After testing each solution in the wiring closet, we moved the products to the labs of Neal Nelson & Associates (1 (312) 755-1000), where we used 96 PC connections to generate more than 5 Gbps of real-world application traffic. We stress-tested each switch for at least 24 consecutive hours using Neal Nelson's (1 (312) 755-1000) LAN benchmark. (For more on the Neal Nelson (1 (312) 755-1000) tests, see "From the Lab of Neal Nelson & Associates (1 (312) 755-1000)" page 88.)

The Absentee List Although the vendor participation for this review was nothing short of extraordinary, a few important players were noticeably absent. Topping the list is Foundry Networks, which told us it is working on a new, high-density solution that would better meet the needs of enterprise customers and said that it felt it would be "slammed" by the competition. Foundry has received several awards from Network Computing in the past, so we can only berate it for not stepping up to the plate for this round of tests.

Similarly absent from the switching portion of the review is Packet Engines, which claimed that customer shipments demanded priority over a competitive review, and Intel, which said its product wouldn't be ready in time for our testing.

In addition, Plaintree Systems declined to participate, explaining that its Gigabit Ethernet interfaces weren't in production yet. Acacia Networks provided no reason for its decision not to participate, while Acclaim Communications, NBase Communications and XLNT did not respond to our invitation at all.

So, how did the participating products stack up? You'll find detailed results of the Gigabit Ethernet switch testing below. You can read about our NIC testing online at www.networkcomputing. com/916/916r1.html.