1. The Nortel Networks Passport 8600
series Ethernet Switch delivers a highly
available, operationally simplistic, and
intelligent network routing solution.
Harnessing the power of the Passport
8600 allows for exponential growth in
network bandwidth, increased network-
based revenue opportunities, and five
nines of reliability for the network
core. In addition, hardware-based wire
speed performance enables fast and
efficient traffic classification, policy
enforcement, and filtering. This perfor-
mance benefits time-sensitive applica-
tions such as video and voice, and
revenue-generating applications such as
Quality of Service (QoS) and personal-
ized content. The Passport 8600 series
Ethernet Switch delivers a robust, secure,
and intelligent solution that provides a
true competitive edge.
Key features and benefits
• High availability—A Passport 8600
Ethernet Switch with Split-MLT
improves reliability, redundancy,
and applications performance for
the entire network.
• Operational simplicity—Passport
8600 technologies like multimedia
filters reduce configuration time and
speed up network deployment and
fault finding.
• Superior intelligence—Integrated
Layer 4 thru Layer 7 forwarding
capabilities improve applications
performance by allowing you to
balance and direct requests to the
most effective resource.
• Lower cost of ownership—Hot
swappable components and full
network utilization are designed to
let you use what you pay for all the
time. The lean architecture of the
Passport 8600 decreases the number
of network components, further
reducing costs.
Passport 8600
The Ethernet Switch solution for increased network-based revenue opportunities
Product Bulletin
Nortel Networks
Extreme
Networks 6800
128 to 256 Gbps
– 768 (6808)*
– 1152 (6816)*
*Req. new F96ti
modules
– 96 (6808)
– 192 (6816)
– 96 Mpps (6808)
– 192 Mpps (6816)
– 96 Mpps (6808)
– 192 Mpps(6816)
Yes
No
Yes
No
Foundry Big Iron
8000
265 Gbps
168/360
120/232
96 million pps/ 178
million pps
96 million pps/ 178
million pps
No
No
No
No
Cisco Catalyst
6500
32 to 256 claimed
– 240 (5 I/O slots)
– 384 (8 I/O slots)
– 576 (12 I/O slots)
– 82 (5 I/O slots)
– 112 (8 I/O slots)
– 192 (11 I/O slots
– 15 to 90 million pps
claimed (Cat. 6506)
– 15 to 170 million pps
claimed (Cat. 6509)
– 170 million pps
claimed (Cat. 6513)
– 210 million pps
claimed on Cat. 6513
– 170 on Cat. 6509
– 90 claimed on
Cat. 6505
No
No
No
No
Passport 8600
512 Gbps
384 10/100Base-TX
ports
128
96 Mpps
96 Mpps
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes with SMLT
Feature
Backplane
switching capacity
Max port density
(copper)
Max port density
Gigabit SX
Layer 2
Forwarding Rate
Layer 3 Routing
Performance
Eight Hardware/
Software Queues
per I/O port
Protocol and
Priority
Application Aware
Policies
Load Sharing
Switch Fabric
Dual Homing
Support
Enterasys
X-Pedition
8000 16, 8600
32, or ER16 128 Gbps
8000: 56 10/100Base-TX
ports
8600: 120,
ER16: 480
8000: 14 1000Base-X
8600: 30,
ER16: 120
8000: 15 million pps
8600: 30 Mpps,
ER16: 70 Mpps
8000: 15 million pkts
per sec.
8600: 30 million pkts
per sec.
ER16: 70 million pkts
per sec
No
Yes
No
No
Table A. Key feature comparison