[nsp] Catalyst 3550-12T

sthaug at nethelp.no sthaug at nethelp.no
Mon May 10 15:19:37 EDT 2004


> I'm considering the purchase of a Cisco 3550-12T for a medium sized PoP.
> Could someone lend a review of the 3550 series switches with regards to
> reliability, ease of use, etc.

We have no direct experience with the 3550-12T model, but have lots of
experience with 3550-12G and 3550-24.

In general the 3550 series have worked well for us. They have some
limitations, which may or may not be relevant for you:

- Limited size of the MAC address table.
- Limited number of simultaneous VLANs (1024).
- For L3: Limited number of SVIs, limited size of the routing table.

(It was a great disappointment to us that the 3750 Metro, which is more
related to the 3550 than to the rest ofthe 3750 series, didn't improve on
the size of the MAC address table or the number of simultaneous VLANs.)

Ease of use: If you're familiar with IOS, you'll find the 3550s mostly
like any other Cisco router, and pretty easy to use.

Reliability: We've had few 3550-24 DC switches which have been DOA. Not
relevant for you, since there is no DC model of the 3550-12T. Aside from
that, no significant problems.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug at nethelp.no


More information about the cisco-nsp mailing list