Sodola SL-SWTGW2C48NS 12-port Combo 10GbE Switch Review

Sodola SL-SWTGW2C48NS Performance

For this, we are using a Keysight XGS2 chassis with the NOVUS10/1GE16DP card, and we are using twelve of the sixteen ports of the card for this. We are using an RFC2544 Quick Test for throughput with a few changes, for example, we extended the run times per iteration to 30 seconds and started at 10% of the full line rate, searching for frame loss up to 100% of the line rate. We also test the RFC2544 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 1280, and 1518 byte frame sizes, and then add the standard IMIX, the Cisco IMIX, and an IPSec IMIX, which introduces mixed frame sizes into the testing.

As you can see, the 64B test hit almost 91.5Gbps with no dropped frames. That may sound like a low figure across twelve 10G ports. That is actually the line rate at the small frame size. Moving up to 1518B, we saw a similar result with no frame drops.

This was a common theme in our testing, even when we started using non-uniform frame sizes and went into the IMIX, Cisco IMIX, and IPSec IMIX settings. We were getting line rate performance. Here is the standard IMIX.

Here is the Cisco IMIX.

Here is the IPSec IMIX:

Overall, the results were very good indeed. The “with Jitter” is there because we were testing another switch with the same switch chip, just as we started getting our XGS2 to calculate jitter as well, so we re-tested this switch. That jitter figure ended up being a big differentiator for this Sodola which was surprising.

We often see folks online posting that these low-cost switches constantly drop frames. With our new setup, we can actually saturate the switch at different frame sizes and ensure none are dropped. This one was a bit different because instead of only taking a few hours to run, we clicked a few incorrect settings, and this ran for 26 hours over the weekend instead. We did not see dropped frames during this process. While it is quite possible that something happens a year or two down the road, we could not find any glaring issues in the basic performance profile.

Sodola SL-SWTGW2C48NS Power Consumption

When it comes to the power consumption, we hit 13W at idle, which is more than some of the SFP+ only switches we have seen.

With a single port plugged in, we saw the power consumption pop. Even with a 2.5GbE test port plugged in, the power was up by 1.6W which is quite a bit.

This is one of the most interesting findings. When we plugged in the SFP+ to 10Gbase-T adapter, we saw the same power consumption as when the 2.5GbE port was linked. Usually, the adapter generates much higher power consumption.

In terms of noise, this was not a silent switch with the fan.

Final Words

Here is a crazy thought for you: The MikroTik CRS304-4XG-IN is $199 MSRP or $165 list with four ports of 10Gbase-T. Since we paid under $210 for this switch, if you are just looking for dead-simple connectivity, this is a better value. You could argue that MikroTik is the better switch since it has more management features, is built in the EU, and so forth. On the other hand, this is probably better for just low-cost connectivity.

Overall, this is far from fancy, but for the price, it is hard to argue with the value of this Sodola.

Where to Buy

Here is an Amazon affiliate link to what we purchased.