Comparing the Dell, Force 10 and other vendors switches for iSCSI

Comparing the Dell PowerConnect 54xx, 55xx, 62xx and 70xx switches for iSCSI

Mpps  = Million Packets Per Second

5424 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 48.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 35.6 Mpps
Up to 8,000 MAC Addresses
64MB of CPU DRAM
16MB of Flash Memory
2Mb Packet Buffer Memory

5524 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 128.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 65.47 Mpps
Up to 16,000 MAC Addresses
1GB of CPU DRAM
16MB of Flash Memory
12Mb Packet Buffer Memory

6224 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 136 Gb/s
Forwarding Rate 95 Mpps
Up to 8,000 MAC Addresses
256MB of CPU SDRAM
32MB of Flash Memory
?? Packet Buffer Memory

6348 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 184 Gb/s
Forwarding Rate 160 Mpps
Up to 8,000 MAC Addresses
512MB of CPU SDRAM
64MB of Flash Memory
?? Packet Buffer Memory

7024 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 176.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 125 Mpps
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
1GB of CPU DRAM
64MB of Flash Memory
32Mb Packet Buffer Memory

7048 Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 176.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 160 Mpps
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
1GB of CPU DRAM
64MB of Flash Memory
32Mb Packet Buffer Memory

7048R Performance
Switch Fabric Capacity 224.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 160 Mpps
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
1GB of CPU DRAM
64MB of Flash Memory
32Mb Packet Buffer Memory

Force 10 s4810
Switch Fabric Capacity 1.28 Tbps
Forwarding Rate 960 Mpps
Up to 128,000 MAC Addresses
2GB of CPU DRAM
9Mb Packet Buffer Memory

Force 10 MXL
Switch Fabric Capacity 1.28 Tbps
Forwarding Rate 960 Mpps
Up to 128,000 MAC Addresses
2GB of CPU DRAM
9Mb Packet Buffer Memory

Force 10 s60
Switch Fabric Capacity 176 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 132 Mpps
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
?GB of CPU DRAM
1.25Gb Packet Buffer Memory

Cisco 3750G
Switch Fabric Capacity 32.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 38.7 Mpps
Up to 12,000 MAC Addresses
? of CPU DRAM
128MB of Flash Memory
8Mb Packet Buffer Memory*

Cisco Nexus 5548p
Switch Fabric Capacity 160.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 714.24 Mpps (Layer 2)
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
32Mb Packet Buffer Memory*

Cisco 3750X-24S
Switch Fabric Capacity 160.0 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 65.5 Mpps
Up to 12,000 MAC Addresses
? of CPU DRAM
128MB of Flash Memory
?Mb Packet Buffer Memory*

Brocade FCX648S
Switch Fabric Capacity 200 Gbps
Forwarding Rate 150 Mpps
Up to 32,000 MAC Addresses
?GB of CPU DRAM
?Mb Packet Buffer Memory


Basically the faster frame forwarding rate and the higher the port buffer the better, which is how you gauge a good switch.


*0.75MB of ingress buffering is dynamically divided into port
buffers/queues, 2 of which are user-configurable. There's 2MB of
egress buffering that provides 4 egress queues per physical port.