[c-nsp] Question on GSR

[Arie Vayner]

The 3GE card is very limited in features, and you would be hitting
problem after problem with it. Look at the 4GE instead.

The 3750 switches or the older 3550 can do quite a lot of what you
need, but with some limitations - you could try to look at them more
closely if the price is right for you, and maybe find some work
arounds (like applying QOS on the actual port and not on a dot1q vlan)

Another option you could look at is the 7301 or another 7200/NPE G1.
There is a cheaper platform called 7301, which is the same CPU like
the NPEG1, which 3 GigE ports and all, but with only 1 PA slot and
takes 1U of rack space. You could consider just using several of these
and split the traffic between them.
It's always better to be able to scale with more boxes instead of one
larger box (you would run out of "bigger boxes" in the end...)

Arie

On 6/16/05, Bulgaria Online - Assen Totin <assen at online.bg> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I seek your advise on the subject, described below. I'll try to keep
> it as short as possible. Thanks in advance to all who decide to reply.
> 
> I'm running a network core to which several MAN networks are
> connected. Several of them still run at 100 Mbps, but the main is
> already at full 1 Gpbs and the second gigabit is under way. All the
> MANs are fiber optics, terminated to a Cisco 3750G which is used as a
> switch only and which sets DSCP markers for further traffic management.
> 
> The traffic management is done by a 7200/NPE-G1, which is running out
> of CPU resources (we have reached > 1.5 Gbps at the peak moments) and
> I'm looking for a suitable replacement. A GSR caught my eye, but I'm
> not familiar with this series and thus not sure whether it will be
> able to achieve what I need. My core router has to be able to:
> 
> 1. use VLAN dot1q sub-interfaces
> 2. provide SNMP access to the counters for each dot1q sub-interface
> 3. match TOS/DSCP in ACL
> 4. apply rate-limits (or better, traffic-shape groups if available) to
> dot1q sub-interfaces (output traffic)
> 5. support BGP (40-50 small sessions, up to 1,000 prefixes each)
> 6. do CEF
> 7. do Netflow exports
> 
> The GSR I noted consists of:
> 
> * Cisco 12008 chasis
> * GRP-B router processor with 512 MB RAM
> * GSR12000 3-port GE line card (a second one to be added later)
> 
> As far as I get it, this configuration should be able to deal with
> several gigabits of traffic without problems. However, I see that the
> latest available IOS is something like 12.0(28). Would it support all
> the features I need? (E.g., I've had a case when a 36 or 72 series
> router refused to report sub-interface counters via SNMP before IOS
> 12.something.)
> 
> I'm aware that these routers are no longer in production, but their
> parameters and price seem attractive enough when compared with a
> new, say, 76xx device. (I haven't had the chance to play with a 76xx,
> but taking in account that it uses Supervisors and many interfaces
> from 65xx,  does it really have full traffic management
> capabilities like 72xx/75xx? When my 3750G arrived, I was quite
> surprised how many things I'm used to in routers are actually missing
> in it.)
> 
> All your ideas/considerations are mostly welcome.
> 
> WWell,
> 
> Assen Totin
> Development Manager
> 
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