Re: [nsp] Cisco 7507 w/ GE interfaces

From: George Robbins (grr@shandakor.tharsis.com)
Date: Tue Dec 05 2000 - 08:04:48 EST


> Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 13:23:13 +0200
> To: cisco-nsp@puck.nether.net
> From: Hank Nussbacher <hank@att.net.il>
> Subject: [nsp] Cisco 7507 w/ GE interfaces
>
> I know there has been discussion previously about the GE limitations, but I
> just wanted to be clear. Is there any internal performance bottleneck
> running a Cisco 7507, RSP8, VIP4-80s, 2 GE and 1 STM-1 ATM (to be upgraded
> to STM-4 later)?

Well, the datasheet for the PA-GE/GEIP+, the aggregate you're going to
get out of a VIP4 slot is 800mb/s, and that's with whatever VIP code
hacks they've put in the GEIP microcode. Until such time as a a VIP8
with double-speed PCI bus comes out (if/when) GEIP's and PA-A3-ATM-OC12's
only allow 7500's to interface with Gig-E and OC-12 networks, rather
than drive wire-speed or wire-speed full-duplex. Also, note that the
PA-GE's still aren't "supported" in VIP4/xxx's.

So, if your application is talk w/Gig-E, talk with ATM OC-3/OC-12 with
better than Fast-E performance, you're cool. If you're looking for
any approach to wire-speed, you're probably not going to be happy,
whether in the "doesn't go that fast" or "becomes unreliable" mode.

Also, this is basically a one PA/VIP kind of deal, you're looking
at a situation were a GSR is only 2-3 times as expensive, and toys
like the Juniper M5 make you wonder whether Cisco thinks they have
such a strong market positionthat they'll be able to dodge .357
magnum price/performance bullets when they're nipping at the ISP/
aggregation router market instead of just the lofty core-routers...

                                                        George



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