Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8800 Series Product Assessment

Product Assessment:	Extreme Networks - BlackDiamond 8800 Series
Report Date:
Analyst:	Schuchart, Steve
Market:	Enterprise Network Systems
Class:	Modular Switching

Summary | Strengths and Weaknesses | Buying/Selecting Criteria | Metrics

Summary

Buying Criteria

Current Perspective

The Extreme BlackDiamond 8800 series is very threatening to competitors because of its port density, high performance switching, 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities, security integration with the Sentriant NG300 IDS/IPS, and integrated PoE features. This next-generation switch is well suited to not only the wiring closet and the small to medium enterprise core, but can also play very well into the high performance computing (HPC) vertical markets. The BlackDiamond 8800 offers up to 384 ports of Gigabit Ethernet with or without PoE. On the 10 Gigabit Ethernet side, it offers the possibility of 32 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis. Extreme has done work on the port diversity of the BlackDiamond 8800 and while it isn’t industry leading, it is certainly adequate for nearly any enterprise. The only complaint would be the lack of low-cost 10/100 ports. The BlackDiamond 8800 does not come in a small one- or two-I/O slot configuration like many competitors, and some customers may be forced to over-buy capacity. In those situations switch to one of Extreme’s fixed products, or look at a competing product. With its high backplane capacity, the BlackDiamond 8800 offers good investment protection and is well suited to the next-generation wiring closet. All this capability does come with a price and Gigabit Ethernet pricing for the BlackDiamond 8800 is in the high end for products in this class.

The Extreme BlackDiamond 8800 series provides extra value because it will be a viable platform for many years to come with its 800Gbps backplane. While it is currently priced more along the lines of a small network core switch, this platform will mature into a good wiring closet switch in the future, and puts considerable pressure on older generation platforms that simply do not provide the investment protection of the Extreme BlackDiamond 8800 Series.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths• The BlackDiamond 8800 series comes in two chassis sizes, six- and ten-slot (BlackDiamond 8806 and 8810, respectively). The modules for the two products are interchangeable, as are the power supplies. By providing two form factors, customers now have alternatives for smaller or higher density environments.

• The BlackDiamond 8810 offers a maximum of 384 ports of 10/100/100 with or without PoE in a single chassis, 32 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in a single chassis, or 386 1000Base-X mini-GBIC ports. This provides considerable port diversity as well as density comparable to anything in the wiring closet or small enterprise core markets today. Extreme also offers less expensive 2:1 oversubscribed line cards for customers that do not need full non-blocking performance and wish to save some money.

• The BlackDiamond 8810 uses the same ExtremeXOS as the Extreme Black Diamond 10K series and most of the rest of Extreme’s products. This provides a fully modular proven switch OS and management interface commonality. Extreme emphasizes the strength of the ExtremeXOS operating system and has standardized on it on nearly all of its current switching products.

• The dual MSM fabrics and fail-over features of the BlackDiamond 8800 series make it a good choice for converged networks with voice and data traffic. Fabric redundancy is becoming a must-have feature even for wiring closet products due to the proliferation of IP telephony in the enterprise.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 series shares power supplies with its larger Black Diamond 10K brother, enabling enterprises to keep a single set of supplies as hot-spare for both families of products.

Weaknesses• With the investment protection of the BlackDiamond 8800 comes the inevitable downside of higher per port costs of standard copper Gigabit Ethernet ports. Many competitors have lower per port costs, and in the price sensitive wiring closet and small network core spaces price is a large factor.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 has only one 10 Gigabit Ethernet line card, a four port model albeit in three flavors of connectivity, XFP, CX-4, and XENPAK. This is a disadvantage for customers that only need one or two 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks such as wiring closet customers are forced to buy more port capacity than they need.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 does not come in a chassis smaller than six slots, leaving customers that want the capabilities of the BlackDiamond 8800 but do not need the larger capacities without a choice. Additionally, many competitors such as Enterasys and 3Com have smaller chassis in this market.

• Extreme’s tactic of pushing ExtremeXOS as a main selling feature of its switching line is a tactic that will be effective in the short-term. Longer term, as competitors move to modular architectures, it will no longer be an advantage and Extreme will need to change tactics.

Buying/Selecting Criteria Management/Ease of Use

• The EPICenter management console supports policy-based management of rules, ACLs, switch configuration, and network inventory on the BlackDiamond 8800.

• The BlackDiamond 8810 and the BlackDiamond 8806 both share common line cards and management modules (MSMs) to ease hot sparing and reduce support costs.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 supports eight hardware queues and can rate limit ports down to 64 kbps on 1 Gigabit ports and 1 Mbps on 10 Gigabit ports.

• The ExtremeXOS operating system is a modular software design that allows the administrator to start and stop individual processes, which is a considerable advantage over monolithic operating systems from competitors.

• ExtremeXOS has become the foundational operating system for Extreme, and is featured in nearly all of its products. This “sameness” of operating system can be a considerable advantage for customers who invest in an all-Extreme network.

Performance

• The BlackDiamond 8800 series delivers up to 570 million packets per second, making it the highest performing product in the wiring closet and small enterprise core markets.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 has a switching capacity slightly over 4 Tbps including local switching, and can deliver 800 Gbps total switching including the backplane today, making it one of the highest performing products in its class.

• A dual MSM configuration is required for maximum throughput, as the MSMs share the load between them. If a single MSM fails, the throughput of the chassis is halved until the MSM is replaced or brought back online.

Port Diversity

• Extreme has come out with quite a few new line cards for the BlackDiamond 8800, including lower cost line cards that are specifically lower cost by being oversubscribed. This added flexibility is music to the ears of buyers in the wiring closet market who are not afraid to oversubscribe.

• Beyond the lack of lower port count 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports, there are no 10/100 line cards available and there are no specialty telecommunications ports, such as OC-3 or OC-12. This makes it more difficult to use the BlackDiamond 8800 Series in small core network situations.

• To date, Extreme Networks has paid diligent attention to the BlackDiamond 8800 product line by bringing out new line cards with different features, if not greatly varying port counts. This bodes well for the future of the product line.

Scalability

• The BlackDiamond 8810 can support up to 384 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 384 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports with PoE, 224 1000Base-X ports, or 32 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports while in a redundant MSM configuration. This level of density is among the best in its class.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 series uses internal power supplies for all PoE functions, saving the necessity of external power shelves or complicated power injection systems.

• On both the 8810 and the 8806, at least one slot must be used for the MSM card, and in a redundant configuration, two slots must be used, lowering the overall slot count and increasing the cost.

Total Cost of Ownership

• The BlackDiamond 8800 series offers compelling investment protection with performance and capacity that will hold any wiring closet or small data center in good stead for years. Customers can no doubt also look forward to performance increases on this new platform in the future.

• The BlackDiamond 8800 offers internal PoE power supplies, cutting down on cable clutter and the need to manage a separate device to handle PoE power.

• The base warranty covers hardware for one year (with ten-day turnaround) and 90 days of technical support. Next business day service of the BlackDiamond series starts at $6,000.

Metrics Physical Characteristics

Device Class

Layer 3

Primary Target Market

Wiring Closet

QoS Features

Total Number of Transmit Queues Per Port

Total Number of Receive Queues Per Port

Strict Priority Queues

Yes

Rate Limiting Support

Yes

Rate Limiting Granularity

1 Gbps port 64 Kbps increments,10 Gbps port 1Mbps increments

Classify by IP DSCP/TOS

Yes

Write/Re-write IP DSCP/TOS

Yes

Protocol Support

802.1w Fast Spanning Tree

Yes

802.1s Per VLAN Spanning Tree

Proprietary(EMISTP)

802.3ad Trunking

802.1x User Authentication

Yes

Network Login

IGMP Snooping

Yes

IP Routing

Yes

IP Routing Protocols

RIP v1/v2, OSPF, PIM DM/SM, VRRP, ESRP

Interface Support

10/100Base-T

None

10/100Base-T with 802.3af

None

100Base-FX

None

10/100/1000Base-T

48-Port

10/100/1000Base-T with 802.3af

48-Port

1000Base-X (GBIC or SFP)

48-Port, 24-Port, 8-port for MSM-48c

10G - Fixed Optics

None

10G - Modular

4-Port (Xenpak), XFP, CX-4

Other (Specify Type and Port Count)

None

Special Modules (Non-line Cards)

None

Chassis-Specific Characteristics

Total Number of Slots in Chassis

4-Slot, 8-Slot

Reserved Slots

Fabric Module

Fabric Type

Shared memory

Fabric Location

Located on MSM and each I/O module

Fabric Redundancy

MSMs are redundant and fault tolerant, loss of fabric reduces switch performance

High Availability

Hot-Swap Fan Trays

Yes

Hot-Swap Line Cards

Yes

Hot-Swap Management Module

Yes

Hot-Swap Fabric Module

Yes

Hot-Swap Power Supplies

Yes

Hot-Swap Other

Yes PSU Controller Board

Minimum Number of Power Supplies

1 Based on one MSM and one I/O Module

Maximum Number of Power Supplies

Power Supply Load Distribution

N+1

Non-Stop Code Upgrade

Yes

Performance

Backplane Size

800 Gbps

Forwarding Rate

570 Mpps

Switch Forwarding Latency

4.7uSec with 64byte packets

Pricing

Bare Chassis Configuration

$6995 (Includes Fan Tray)

10/100Base-T Line Card Price (non-PoE)

Not available

10/100Base-T Line Card Price (PoE)

Not available

10/100/1000Base-T Line Card Price

$13495 (48-Port)

1000Base-X GBIC/SFP Line Card Price

$12995 (24-Port)

10 Gig Modular Line Card Price

$13495 (4-Port)

Support

Standard Warranty

1Year Hardware, 90 days software

Enterprise Maintenance Contract

$6000, Based on NBD