Performance Test Report of gigabit backbone switch

GE backbone switches are commonly used. So I have studied the performance test report of GE backbone switches. I will share the report here, hoping to help you. Several Gigabit backbone switches provided for test are provided with detailed documentation. Here we first introduced the instructions of Digital China D-Link, which is very detailed. The previous section describes the basic knowledge of layer-2 switching and layer-3 routing, and then describes the functions of vswitches in detail.

In addition, the specification of the Gigabit backbone switch is Chinese, which is also easy for domestic engineers to read. 3Com4900 Provides CD and printed instruction documents, which are also very detailed. In addition, the website of 3Com can also download all related file information of the vswitch. The Thinker3800 switch of the creative company we got provides a CD with a Chinese instruction in detail.

Powerful functions

Our evaluation is mainly to measure the performance of the Gigabit backbone switch. At the same time, we also consider the features of the Gigabit backbone switch through configuration and validation tests. Two of the switches we tested are capable of forwarding on the third layer. Digital China D-Link DGS-3308TG is one of them, we set their eight ports to different VLANs, into different subnets to test its performance, quite good. As a fixed and modular Gigabit backbone switch, it also supports more complex routing protocols such as OSPF.

Another layer-3 switch is 3Com4900. After the software is upgraded, It is a layer-3 or layer-4 switch. We tested its L3 performance. In layer-4 mode, it can identify application streams based on TCP port numbers and assign priority to different application streams. For example, assign a high priority to the packets of an SNMP application to ensure network management is feasible. Set a higher priority for an application whose port number is 80.

In fact, to ensure high network performance, these Gigabit backbone switches that can be managed support restrictions on broadcast storms. At the same time, all the send and test switches support the traffic control protocol of X 3 to ensure that, in the case of congestion, they negotiate with other network devices to reduce the transmission speed of frames and relieve network congestion. For vswitches that support copper interfaces, they also support back-pressure traffic control in Mbit/s half-duplex mode.

More switches provide IEEE 802.1p priority control, 3Com4900 and shenzhou.com-Link's DGS-3308TG company switch provides 4 priority queues for each port, which is the most popular in test-free products. The DGS-3308TG of digital D-Link can also assign priority based on the source and destination addresses of data frames. We found that many switches combine the P priority with the Q setting to provide VLAN service quality control. In fact, in addition to ensuring security, VLANs can also improve network performance by limiting broadcast domains.

All vswitches support VLAN 802.1Q. The digital D-Link DGS-3308TG switch supports up to 2048 VLANs. 802.1Q can be tagged on an Ethernet frame so that a VLAN can span multiple switches and one port of a vswitch belongs to multiple VLANs at the same time. All these vswitches support GVRP and GMRP, allowing the host to automatically register to the VLAN and multicast group of the network. Link aggregation makes the link bandwidth between vswitches and servers very scalable. For example, we can bind two, three, and four Gigabit Links together, multiply the bandwidth of the link. The link aggregation technology can achieve load balancing of different ports, while also ensuring link redundancy. These Gigabit Ethernet switches support up to four link aggregation groups and each group has up to four ports. Generally, when link aggregation is set, we can see which ports belong to one switching chip. Cross-chip settings are not allowed for half of link aggregation.

Both the Spanning Tree Protocol and link aggregation can ensure the redundancy of a network. Set redundant links in a network and use the Spanning Tree Protocol to block the backup link without forming a loop logically. If a fault occurs, the backup link is enabled. However, the Spanning Tree Protocol takes too long to compute. IEEE is developing a new protocol, which is yuan. A 3Com vswitch has an elastic link setting option. Assume that the two links are set as an elastic link group. When one link is disconnected, the switch will quickly start working on another link, the efficiency is higher than the spanning tree algorithm. It is said that the switchover can be completed within one second.

The security of networks is becoming more and more important. Gigabit backbone switches can isolate illegal customers from the network at the underlying layer. All the vswitches that can be managed support the MAC address filtering function. You can also bind the MAC address with a fixed port and the VLAN. The 3Com and Digital China D-Link vswitches also support higher-level access list control.

In the face of more and more multicast applications, all network-managed switches support IP multicast. Generally, they support IGMP (InternetGroupManagementProtocol). The switch can intelligently forward IGMP and multicast data packets, instead of broadcasting these packets to all ports. The IGMP probe IGMPSnooping function allows the switch to read IGMP data packets before the data packets are forwarded to learn which port belongs to the multicast member ). 3Com4900 and digital shenzhoud-Link DGS-3308TG switches support layer-3 switching, with stronger support for IP multicast.

Control Gigabit

We have considered that some domestic users will not spend a lot of money to buy some very professional network management software for the time being, so we are very concerned with the management functions provided by the switch itself, they also consider their manageability through actual operations. The Network Management switches we receive support three management methods: out-of-band serial port, in-band Telnet, and HTTP.

String line is the most stable and reliable management method. According to our test results, when a new vswitch is installed, all configuration work starts to connect to the switch through the serial port. Besides the Thinker3800, you can use the serial port to configure all the functions of the switch and view all the information. Compared with Telnet and HTTP, you do not have to worry about losing contact with the vswitch After configuring the VLAN, or you cannot log on to the Gigabit backbone switch because the IP address cannot be found after you reply to the factory settings. The gigabit backbone Ethernet switch we receive provides a menu-based command line interface. Such a management method does not take too much effort to remember those commands. The only defect is that it is not flexible enough. For example, if you want to set traffic control for all ports, some menu configuration interfaces need to move the cursor to each port for configuration. In the command line mode, a single command completes all the settings. The 3Com4900 menu is between the command line and the menu mode. Each Command is explained in the following sections. The menu configuration interfaces of the switches we tested are well designed, and there is no major difference in the performance of the switches under different loads.

HTTP is our most respected management method. The browser can connect all Gigabit backbone switches and provide a friendly and intuitive graphical interface. Creative Company's Thinker3800 can only be configured with some very simple functions through serial ports. Most of the functions and switch management information are provided on the Web. There are help options on the web pages of these vswitches. After clicking these options, you will have a detailed introduction to the configuration content on this page, which is much easier than reading the manual. Digital digital D-Link DGS-3308TG Switch Web interface delicate, when viewing port information, you can use graphical display port utilization. Accton's Web management interface is relatively satisfactory, but its Web method can manage all the functions of the switch. Some manufacturers may experience a slight reduction in Web management compared with Telnet and serial ports. The biggest regret in Web is that no vswitch supports Chinese Web interfaces.

We downloaded the NetworkSupervisor software from the website of 3Com, through which we can conveniently manage 3Com devices in the network and view the Load Status of devices and links, it can also notify network administrators through paging and email. In the packing box of the Gigabit backbone switch, Accton also provided the company's AccView network management software for managing Accton network products. Zhouzhou digital D-Link also provides a free download of Dview and professional LinkManager from the website.

In terms of SNMP, all the switches we receive have good support. 3Com vswitches have strong support for RMON and support groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9, generally, vswitches support information in groups 1, 2, 3, and 9. In addition to standard MIB such as RFC1213, The es00008 switch of Accton also supports its own MIB. Among the switches we receive, 3ComSwitch4900 and acctones00008 can also be connected to the modem through a serial port. Users can remotely access the Gigabit backbone switch through dialing through the telephone network for configuration management.