[c-nsp] Extreme vs. Cisco

[Mikael Abrahamsson]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Rubens Kuhl Jr. wrote:

> Most Extreme horror stories I've heard of were L3 ones. Don't know if
> some new architeture solves this, but route-caching like pre-CEF times
> isn't an option anymore, in my opinion.
> (that lead to some people doing Extreme L2 + Juniper L3 combos). That
> design decision also affected most Foundry products, although they
> have topology-based forwarding in some linecards now.

Older platforms they had were route-cache based, and the cheaper ones 
today are too. The newer "real" ones are more in the 3750/4500 range when 
it comes to routing, unless you're talking the 10808/12000 which is more 
like a Sup3BXL.

As with any platform you have to know what you're buying and ask the right 
questions. All equipment will bite you if you do things it's not designed 
to do.

I've run Extreme and Cisco in ISP environment for 6-7 years, each has 
their upside and downside. As soon as you start doing things in ASIC you 
have to be careful to know exactly what the ASIC will and will not do.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se