[c-nsp] Small PE L3 Switches ?

[Mike Butash]

Heh, sorry if i offended the engineers saying the 7301 is akin to a 
2600, but that's about how we had used them effectively as a 
software-only platform, at least as far as network placement.  They make 
an ok pe if you only need less than a single gige handoff to a ce 
(without l2 switch distribution and dot1q).  This was the small office 
p/pe model for us on a metro dwdm/ethernet ring too, but not of much use 
elsewise.

7304's are ok for pe duty too, but their value comes in being able to 
use multiple legacy pa interfaces via carrier-card->pa adapter use (when 
you don't run into aforementioned dysfunctional behavior), and using the 
cc bus for high-bandwidth 10g/oc192 interfaces.  There is also the fact 
interfaces are expensive for what you get, unless you are dealing with 
telco-style carrier networks with a lot of non-ethernet peering.  The 
NSE PXE acceleration is the key with them, but I see their interface 
cost as a significant price-point problem if all you need is ethernet, 
and find little value in that market.  When they're having you pay for 
the sip and spa's in quantity, it's more than a 6500 line-card that can 
most or more of that functionality and scale to a whole lot more for 
long-term cost effectiveness.

Small pe generally means to me lack of capacity if you're planning on 
using it for selling access, unless you're talking about smaller 
capacities such as a branch office with static connections.  I think 
ultimately the 3750ME is destined for vpls-style u-pe for l2 metro 
services if that is your market.  I don't believe they are much for l3 
PE/routing termination such as for vrf handoff's to a ce.  If you are 
heading CE->PE's doing l3 with routing protocols, and any amount of 
them, I think the 73xx or 65xx will about have to be your choice for 
versatility in the Cisco world.  From there you need to determine your 
overall capacity.

The ME6500 seems to hold promise for this, but I've not had much 
necessity to look at them lately.  The DC issue is a bit disconcerting, 
as I can see these easily being used on AC too if you're already in a 
datacenter with uber-redundant power.  That sounds like the cisco "left 
hand not talking to the right" kind of thing.  It might be worth a 
rectifier and some DC cabling...

It all comes down to capacity.  I'm curious what is your price-point, 
what functionality specifically are you looking for, and how many/what 
kind of ports are you terminating?  This is a hard niche to find a 
price-point on for hardware, and I agree that a normal 3750 would be 
nice for this.  I was disappointed it wouldn't do tag switching when 
their docs have always indicated a certain level of mpls functionality, 
it was one of the first things I looked at when I first got my hands on 
one.  This really only meant vrf-lite, but they're still only a good l2 
switch and suit some basic l3 roles very effectively.

-mb




David J. Hughes wrote:
> On 16/09/2006, at 6:46 AM, Liviu Pislaru wrote:
> 
>> HI.
>> You're right, 3400's "knows" vrf light only, not MPLS.
>> If you need Gig-E access port try Cisco ME-6524 (pizza box).
>>  ME-C6524GS-8S (24 x gigabit SFP + 8 x gigabit SFP - ES)
>>  ME-C6524GT-8S (24 x 10/100/1000 + 8 x gigabit SFP - ES)
> 
> Thanks, but they are DC only at this point in time (and we need AC  
> power).  From what I've been able to gather there's very little  
> chance that these will become a "normal" Cisco product and be  
> released in both AC and DC models.
> 
> This is exactly my point.  There are all these products that are  
> "almost" useful for this purpose.  But nothing from Cisco actually  
> has all the features at this price point.  Think I'll need to look  
> further afield.
> 
> 
> David
> ...
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