Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6850 Series
The Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6850 family of stackable fixed switches remains a competitive offering with PoE, 10G uplinks, strong security and software upgrade features that provide good investment protection. (6/15/2010)

Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 Series
Avaya’s Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 series is a competitive product family with a mix of models and additional software features that compete nicely with other models in the marketplace. (6/15/2010)

Brocade FastIron CX Series
The Brocade FastIron CX Series offers good port density, good port diversity, 10GbE uplinks, advanced Layer 3 protocols and PoE+, but it is difficult to differentiate products in the fixed configuration switching market. (6/15/2010)

Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series
Cisco’s new Catalyst 3750-X supports PoE+ and the innovative ability to share power across four members of a stack called StackPower and when combined with the product line’s abundant software features makes it very threatening to competitors. (6/15/2010)

Enterasys C5
The Enterasys C5 is threatening to competitors because of its strong port diversity, 10GbE support, PoE+ support, competitive pricing, and the focus on security that Enterasys brings to all of its switching products. (6/15/2010)

Extreme Networks Summit X450e/X450a Series
Extreme’s Summit X450e/X450a series provides a competitive aggregation and small core switch due to good performance and reasonable port diversity. With PoE capabilities, the X450e can support handsets, access points, and other PoE devices. (6/15/2010)

Force10 S-Series
The Force10 S-Series offers good 10G Ethernet and PoE options, making this product competitive in the fixed and stackable switch market. (7/30/2009)

Hewlett-Packard E-5500G Switch Series (formerly 3Com Switch 5500G Series)
The HP E550G series of stackable switches brings considerable port diversity and density, respectable performance, and the same consistent OS as the rest of HP’s 3Com-heritage products, giving the product good value, although it still lacks PoE+. (6/15/2010)

Juniper Networks EX4200 Line
Juniper’s EX4200 line of fixed configuration switches threatens competitors with a higher stack count, a higher total port count, and the features that the majority of enterprise customers are seeking in a switch today. (6/15/2010)

Top

Report Contents

• Current Perspective Rating
• Product Strengths & Weaknesses
• Product Buying Criteria
• Product Metrics

Top

Fixed Switching Buying Criteria

• Performance
  
  
• Scalability
  
  
• Manageability/Ease of Use
  
  
• Total Cost of Ownership
  
  
• Port Diversity
  • Port Diversity is the amount of different and varying port types available in a given product family or chassis. This denotes the deployment flexibility the product has from a port perspective.

Top

Fixed Switching Product Metrics

• Physical Characteristics
  • Device Class
  • Primary Target Market
• QoS Features
  • Total Number of Transmit Queues Per Port
  • Total Number of Receive Queues Per Port
  • Strict Priority Queues
  • Rate Limiting Support
  • Rate Limiting Granularity
  • Classify by IP DSCP/TOS
  • Write/Re-write IP DSCP/TOS
• Protocol Support
  • 802.1w Fast Spanning Tree
  • 802.1s Per-VLAN Spanning Tree
  • 802.3ad Trunking
  • 802.1x User Authentication
  • Network Login
  • IGMP Snooping
  • IP Routing
  • IP Routing Protocols
• Interface Support
  • 10/100Base-T
  • 10/100Base-T with 802.3af
  • 100Base-FX
  • 10/100/1000Base-T
  • 10/100/1000Base-T with 802.3af
  • 1000Base-X (GBIC or SFP)
  • 10G - Fixed Optics
  • 10G - XENPAC
  • Other (Specify Type and Port Count)
  • Special Modules (Non-line Cards)
• High Availability
  • Redundant Power Supplies
  • Non-Stop Code Upgrade
• Performance
  • Aggregate Switch Throughput
  • Forwarding Rate
  • Non-blocking Wire Speed
  • Switch Forwarding Latency
• Pricing
  • Switch Price
  • Expansion Module Pricing
• Support
  • Standard Warranty
  • Enterprise Maintenance Contract
• Product Class Ratings
  • Performance
  • Scalability
  • Management/Ease of Use
  • Total Cost Of Ownership
  • Port Diversity