[c-nsp] 12008 replacement, 7300?

[Matthew Crocker]

>> Personally, I would stay with the 12000 series and upgrade the LCs
>>
>
> The other idea is to upgrade some existing 6500s, turning them into  
> 7600s. Versus the 12000 series, would you look at that at all?

I don't have a 6500 or a 7600 so I'm going by what I've learned on  
this list and on the cisco website.  Please correct me if I'm wrong

The SUP720 is a new beast and has limited software features and  
reliability (judging from this list).
The 6500/7600 is a switch 1st, router 2nd and has small packet  
buffers. OSM cards have large buffers?
The 12000 is a router with large packet buffers.
The 7600 is better at handling large numbers of Ethernet connections  
10/100/1000/10000
The 12000 is better at handling large numbers of Serial connections  
(DS-3, OC-n)
The 12000 does dCEF all the time,  doesn't know how to do anything  
else. If you don't have enough RAM on an LC to handle the FIB what  
happens?
The 7600 does CEF unless you buy the appropriate LCs and DFCs to go  
in them, then it will do dCEF on the enabled cards.
The 7600 with SUP720 is like an overblown 7200/7300 (centralized  
forwarding) unless you shell out the extra money for the DFCs

If you are taking big pipes and feeding little pipes you'll want the  
bigger packet buffers.  high latency is better than dropped packets.
If you are connecting to a lot of OC-n type circuits you may like the  
port options on a 12k
If you can get your transport providers to deliver via GigE, 10GigE  
you may like the port options on a 7600

I don't know the direction Cisco is going with either package,  to me  
it looks like they are developed by two different engineering groups  
competing against each other.  CSR-1 & 12ks in the core and 7600s on  
the edge?? I dunno

--
Matthew S. Crocker
Vice President
Crocker Communications, Inc.
Internet Division
PO BOX 710
Greenfield, MA 01302-0710
http://www.crocker.com