[c-nsp] Router/switch recommendations for colocation

[Garry]

On 28.01.2011 07:18, Jim Berwick wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Hoping someone can offer advice on hardware.  We're going to be
> offering bandwidth to our colo customers.  Initially we're bringing in
> a single 100mbit connection (Level3) but planning to add a Verizon
> circuit in the near future and do BGP (full routes from both
> providers).  We're looking for something to terminate the internet as
> well as the customer connections.
>
> Looking for a switch that can do ingress and egress rate shaping (or
> thinking of a 3750 stack and handling rate shaping on the router
> upstream), and a router/switch that can handle full BGP tables from at
> least two providers.  We need something either fully redundant (dual
> SUP, power supply, etc), or two units with HSRP.
>
> The idea that was put on the table already is a 3750 stack (two
> switches, feeding each customer two connections) uplinked to two 3845s
> to handle layer 3 routing of the customer VLANs and the BGP sessions. 
> My concern with that setup is the 3845 being able to handle two full
> BGP tables.
With a decent ram upgrade, that shouldn't be the problem .. forwarding
though might be the important issue with the 3845. What bandwidths do
you expect to handle?

Check out Cisco's router performance sheet for a rough estimate of how
much throughput you can get out of the routers ... According to it, the
3845 is rated at 500kpps, which ought to be enough to handle two 100mbit
uplinks ... you might want to look into maybe a 7301, which can handle
twice the throughput (~1mpps) and is only 1RU ... price-wise it's not
that much difference (List price of 18k$ for the 7301, 13k$ for the
3845). Or even better, look into an ASR1002F, which is 20k$, but is
rated at 4.4mpps and has 4xGE ... (and has more memory and flash on board)

-garry