If nothing else, network architects expect 10 GbE core switches to deliver raw performance. Bottlenecks can lurk inside a high-speed switch, however, and that could cause its actual performance to clock in far below theoretical maximum. The solution, of course, is to benchmark any of these high-end devices before purchase and deployment. Testing core switch performance brings another set of challenges, though.

Test tool vendors such as Ixia and Spirent Communications provide a wide range of powerful network switch benchmarking gear that includes 10 GbE interfaces. Such gear is essential to benchmarking core switches. Often, however, organizations must share access to this gear across multiple test teams, leaving little time for testing core switch performance. In other cases, you might assemble all your high-end traffic generation gear and find out that your core switch is cruising along showing only 20% CPU utilization.