[nsp] mls in the core?

[Stephen J. Wilcox]

Hi,
 recent topics on mls has me wondering.

Has anyone experience - live or lab - of running multilayer switching in the
network core?

What I mean by this is where you may have multiple gig-e links which you would
usually plug in to a big router- gsr or whatever that is also running a full bgp
table possibly with many peers.

What about if you stick a 7xxx on as the router engine and sit a 6xxx underneath
with the gig links in and configure the pair to run mls?

The 6xxx has a much higher throughput and I'd assume be able to really take a
beating, as the packets dont go thro the engine the 7xxx doesnt need a huge cpu
and expensive gig line cards - a single GE or possible FE should do.

Any thoughts? The incentive behind this is of course to avoid buying a very
expensive 12000 router loaded with gig ports. (Btw is anyone using and happy
with gig line cards on 7xxx?)

Steve