[nsp] Re: Catalyst 6500 Hybrid

[Deepak Jain]

> 10GE feeding the core from the distribution layer would probably be ok for
> most people, some people would feel that doing 300 miles via DWDM using
> 10GE would be blasphemy, they'd rather see OC192.


I think this is the point I was trying to get to, but didn't word it 
properly. Nowadays, the optical units for 10G Xpaks and Xenpaks (say 
from Intel) are super cheap. Like a few hundred $$ each.

So the optics are not where the price goes up. Yet, for some reason, 
non-ethernet interfaces are MUCH more expensive than the same ethernet 
version. It makes no sense that an OC12 interface would be as or more 
expensive than a GE, or that an OC48 should be more than 3x the cost of 
a GE.

Depending on where you are doing your failover, you don't even need 
SONET switching. You can get sub microsecond switchover with dumb boxes 
that look for the wavelength to become unreliable or disappear -- they 
don't even take the time to look at the framing.

But for some reason, many people insist on engineering for 5-10 years 
ago's state-of-the-art instead of looking at modern solutions. When you 
can have multiple 40Gs on the same route, who cares about deep packet 
buffers or all that?

DJ