[nsp] Channelized DS3

[Brian Vowell]

Streiner, Justin wrote:

>A 2610 or something similar really doesn't have the power needed to drive
>a channelized DS3, particularly if the T1 channels are going to move any
>significant amounts of traffic.  A 2650 or higher *may* work, but I've
>never tried it.
>
We're not expecting any significant amounts of traffic, just the usual 
burst now and then.

>I believe there are external DS3 mux units you can buy that take a
>channelized DS3 in from the telco and feed it out as a HSSI to your
>router.  I don't know how much these boxes cost, but I'd suspect that once
>you add up the costs of the mux, HSSI interface for the router, and the
>cable, it's not much cheaper than a 7200 with a channelized DS3 port
>adapter.  I have many 7200s like this in service, some driving 5 or 6
>channelized DS3s and they work fine.
>
We're leaning toward a 7204 (non VXR) for this project.  All we're 
really doing is aggregating bandwidth.  There isn't any real complexity 
here, and no BGP to worry about.  To be thorough, I would like to 
investigate pricing on a DS3 mux.  Who makes these, and has anyone used 
one for this purpose?

>Your initial cost is higher with  the 7200s, but the incremental costs to
>add another circuit and interface are quite low, plus you don't need to
>worry about an external box dropping out on you in the middle of the
>night or further complicating your troubleshooting when something flakes out.
>
Agreed.  If the budget weren't such an issue, we'd just go buy a 7206VXR 
and be done with it already.


--b