[c-nsp] NPE-G1 PPS limitations

[Arie Vayner (avayner)]

Yes, you are right, the PA-GE is not supported in the Jacket Card, but
other cards like PA-POS-2OC3 are supported, so you can offload the other
busses...

One more thing I wanted to mention is the 7201 platform, which is
basically a 7200 in 1RU configuration with NPE-G2 as its processor.
There is one major difference between 7201 and NPE-G2, which is the
extra GigE port they have put on its main board, so you get 4xGE ports
nativly on the device.
There is also 1 PA slot available for expansion (but I would not
recommend using it for GE due to the bus limit).
The 7201 is a very good option when you just need a few (well, 4) GE
ports and lots of features (very common as a BRAS for example)
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7253/index.html 

Arie

-----Original Message-----
From: Hank Nussbacher [mailto:hank at efes.iucc.ac.il] 
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 17:08 PM
To: Arie Vayner (avayner)
Cc: Ross Vandegrift; cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
Subject: RE: [c-nsp] NPE-G1 PPS limitations

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008, Arie Vayner (avayner) wrote:

> The way the buses are built on the 7200 create a bandwidth bottle neck

> for the PA slots. I would say 400M is the limit per bus (there are 2, 
> and the PAs are split between them).
> You should be aware of the concept of bandwidth points with regards to

> PA slots on 7200:
> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps341/prod_presenta
> ti
> on09186a008009184d.pdf
> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/7200/configuration/7200_port_a
> da
> pter_config_guidelines/3875In.html
>
> On NPE-G1/G2, the onboard (on the NPE) GigE ports are different, and 
> are not limited by this kind of configuration as they are wired 
> directly to the forwarding engine.
> There is also another exception for adding another PA slot on 
> NPE-G1/G2, by using the Jacket Card:
> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/7200/configuration/7200_port_a
> da
> pter_config_guidelines/3875In.html#wp1100537

There is no mention that a PA-GE can be slotted into the Jacket card.
Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Hank

> http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps341/prod_bulletin
> 09
> 00aecd80471892.html
>
> Arie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net 
> [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Hank 
> Nussbacher
> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 07:28 AM
> To: Ross Vandegrift
> Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: Re: [c-nsp] NPE-G1 PPS limitations
>
> On Thu, 17 Apr 2008, Ross Vandegrift wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 11:35:13AM -0700, dpinkard at AccessLine.com
> wrote:
>>> Would one expect gigE to gigE traffic local to the NPE-G1 to scale 
>>> higher than that?
>>
>> Yea, I would expect that.  I don't understand all of the 
>> architechtural issues on the 7200 series in great detail, but it 
>> seems
>
>> that either the PCI bus that line cards use isn't really up to doing 
>> GigE, or the controllers on the PA-GE doesn't scale well.
>>
>> The router I saw this on originally had it's primary ingress 
>> interface
>
>> on the NPE and primary egress interface on the PA-GE.  When we 
>> swapped
>
>> a low-traffic interface on the NPE with the PA-GE, we suddenly saw 
>> our
>
>> packet loss drop to nothing.  So I can say with pretty much 100% 
>> confidence that local to the NPE will scale much better than the 
>> PA-GE.
>>
>> Ross
>
> Have others found this as well?  So far we have used the builtin GE 
> ports on the G1 and have not seen problems.  We are planning on adding

> a 4th GE port via a PA-GE and had not seen any documentation about the

> limitations you mention.
>
> Thanks,
> Hank
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