In June 2005, Cisco Systems commissioned the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) to independently compare Force10 Networks' TeraScale E-Series with Cisco System’s Catalyst 6500 switches. EANTC and Cisco developed a detailed test plan of almost 60 test cases and invited Force10 to participate in the testing. Force10 declined the invitation, but offered to help with potential questions. During the months of July and August 2005, testing were performed by EANTC engineers with support from Cisco and on a few occasions test configuration provided by Force10.

Force10’s TeraScale E-Series switches support high port density, offering up to 1,260 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces in a single switch. Force10 encourages network designs where large numbers of ports are “collapsed� into very high-density single-switch solutions. Cisco typically suggests distributed solutions spread across multiple switches in a redundant configuration.

Force10 contracted the test lab Tolly Group to conduct a report highlighting the performance, scalability and high availability features of the TeraScale solution. The reports seemed to support Force10’s marketing claims, however, lacked the details to facilitate the reproduction of the results by another testing body.

EANTC and Cisco conducted comprehensive tests to reproduce the Tolly Group test results and compare Force10’s TeraScale E-Series against Cisco’s Catalyst 6500. The tests looked beyond pure speeds and feeds, which were the focus of Force10’s Tolly Group tests; examining other critical areas of switch performance. EANTC and Cisco focused on providing users with a complete stable solution with the understanding that slower network speeds do not prevent users from working while an unstable network will stop users from performing their tasks.