[c-nsp] Re: 7500 PPPoE dCEF aggregation

[Robert E.Seastrom]

Rodney Dunn <rodunn at cisco.com> writes:

> There is a 2048 IDB limit on the 75xx and it
> will most likely never be increased.  There
> are multiple reasons why this box is not
> recommended for broadband aggregation.
> ...
> If it were me looking for a platform to do
> broadband aggregation I would not look at the
> 75xx for this purpose.
>
> 72xx/G1, 7301, 10k are the most commonly used
> boxes for this space that I have seen.

It's not as if the features aren't included, though as you mentioned,
testing may be a bit spotty...  As with every other platform, it's a
matter of calibrating one's expectations properly and understanding
the limitations of the kit that you're rolling out.

For example, I've had splendid success with 7505/rsp1 and 7010/rsp7k
in proto-wimax proof-of-concept networks and in the lab -- the
application is naturally low-bandwidth and in any event, 75-100
customers would be a huge number to have connected at once.  For that
niche, it's hard to beat the price/performance of above-cited boxes,
even going with something like RouterOS on commodity Intel hardware
(not supporting Radius attribute 242 (Ascend-Data-Filter) was
decidedly a big minus, and 11 (Filter-Id) is not an acceptable
substitute).

What this requires on the part of the technical team is a close
working relationship with the financial folks.  It also requires trust
between the two teams.  The basic proposition is "I can save you 90%
on your startup equipment costs IFF you understand that this is NOT a
solution 'to grow with', but rather a solution 'to get some revenue
with', and that once there is revenue-generating traffic on the
network, an upgrade of the equipment will be required in fairly short
order, but at least your business model has been somewhat validated
before you go spending big money on the real iron".

                                        ---Rob