[c-nsp] BGP Tunnel or other alternative

[Pete Templin]

Brian Feeny wrote:
> 1. The Cat6500's do not run BGP.  I have heard from others that 6500's 
> can't
> handle BGP well, and so have avoided it.  If someone has something to say
> contrary to this, please let me know (perhaps an IOS version) so I can 
> look into this
> as running BGP on the 6500's is a solution.

BGP on Cat6500 in hybrid mode (yeah, call me crazy) works great. 
Active/active redundant layer 3 functionality with HSRP is quite 
convenient.  Box has been quite stable since deployment in June.

Interestingly, if I go to an adjacent 7507 that receives a full feed and 
  Do Something(tm) that causes a lot of BGP updates to be sent to the 
IBGP peers, the 6509's MSFC2s absorb the updates much quicker than 7507s 
(and Riverstone RS8600s, but that's no surprise).  The OutQ decrements 
to 0 in perhaps 25% of the time as the 7507s.

512MB on MSFC2, 10/100 Ethernet only, but very happy with the box. 
Rate-limiting is not a good option on this box, and MPLS is quite an 
expensive "feature" to obtain, but for raw Ethernet routing/switching my 
customers are quite happy.

pt