Re:Need some comptetive analysis between a Nortel Passport 15000 and Cisco 7500

From: rkuhljr@uol.com.br
Date: Sat Feb 10 2001 - 04:20:31 EST


>>I need some analysis as to why a client of mine should use a couple Cisco
>7500 over a Nortel Passport 15000 for Layer 3 and BGP routing. Any and all
>feedback is welcome. Everything I know of the Passport makes it a great
>Layer 2 device but not high end Layer 3. I have also heard that Nortel is
>teaming with Juniper for trying to win high-end Layer-3 engagements.

Don't put any money on Cisco 7500s; they cost more for every performance/price figure you might consider.

I don't know about Passport 15000, but Nortel Versalar 15000 was a pretty good router, basically an ASIC implementation of the Nortel/Bay/Wellfleet BLN/BCN boxes. As it vanished from Nortel site, may be it has been merged into Passport or died because of Juniper agreement; BLN/BCN/Versalar L3 features were very good, including a BGP implementation that outperformed Cisco's for many years.

If you need IPX, consider Cisco OSR (Cat 6K+FlexWAN cards) or Nortel's options; IP only, jump to Juniper M5/M10 without thinking twice.

Rubens Kuhl Jr.





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