[c-nsp] ONS 15454 questions

[Michael K. Smith]

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On Apr 27, 2005, at 8:35 PM, joe mcguckin wrote:

>
>
> Well, one question I was going to ask is what's the difference between 
> the
> MSTP and MSPP versions? Is it simply a matter of which cards are 
> installed?
>
I had to figure that out as well.  :-)  The MSPP distinction cam around 
when the MSTP distinction came around.  The MSPP is basically the 15454 
without the active DWDM services.  It's the configuration of the 
15454's up until about a year ago when the active DWDM stuff was added 
after the EOL on the 15808's.

We've been running the MSPP since it was Cerent (we still have some of 
the old, black shelves in production) and have been quite satisfied 
with their performance.

> We have a customer who is interested setting up DWDM over metro dark 
> fiber.
> Primarily interested in GigE and 10GE services.

There are interfaces on the 15454 for GigE Services and for OC-192, 
both passive and active.  I'm not sure if the 10GE is supported yet, 
but I would imagine that it will be on the MSTP if/when it is.

> Forgive me if my terminology is not correct here...
>
> How many cards slots are in a single chassis? Are the slots reserved 
> for
> certain types of cards?

On the MSPP there are 16 slots, of which 5 are reserved for commons, 
leaving 10 for other cards.  There are limits to the interface types in 
different slots, however.  Slots 5,6 and 12,13 are "high speed" slots 
and will support 10G services, whereas the other slots are 2.5G.

> (facing towards the network) How many waves can a single chassis 
> support? I
> assume this is dependant on the bandwidth of each wave.

> (Facing towards the customer) How many GigE, 10GE ports are possible?

> If I decide to add SONET adm capability, I assume this consumes card 
> slots
> and limits the maximum number of waves that can be muxed - correct?

I'm not sure what the max channel count is on the MSTP.  I know there 
are different shelves for different roles in the active system (ADM's, 
OLA's, etc.) so I think you are limited only by the number of shelves 
you install.

> What's the difference between the 15808 and 15454?
>
The 808 is EOL but was the old Pirelli gear for long haul active DWDM.  
Much of that technology has been incorporated into the 454.

> I've seen complaints where the line cards on the 15808 would 
> spontaneoulsly
> go offline. Are there any quirks with the 15454?
>
I think it's almost too soon to tell on the MSTP stuff.  I haven't seen 
enough deployed to know how it will work over time.   My only complaint 
is there seems to be a fairly fast cycle to software upgrades on the 
454 platforms as a whole.  I am used to this in switches and routers, 
but there is a different expectation level when it comes to SONET 
services.  Doing major software upgrades causes fairly significant 
outages, particularly when you have +/- 70 units to do and Cisco 
advises (as in, "you better or else") that all chassis in a single DCC 
domain be running the same version of the code.

> Has anyone evaluated Ciena? What were the pro/cons of each?
>
We have their Core Stream gear deployed on an active 10 G system.  It's 
been very stable.  I am less impressed with their mux cards than with 
their backbone lambda gear.  Also, we found that their mux cards did 
Bad Things (tm) to the timing on our SRP ring, to the extend we had to 
pull it out of that run and move it to another passive link.

Mike

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