[c-nsp] Nexus 7000

[Justin Shore]

Tim Stevenson wrote:
> At 10:18 PM 1/28/2008 -0600, mack observed:
>> No mention of MPLS though which gives the CRS-1 a leg up on the 
>> backbone routing market.
> 
> NO MPLS (though the h/w is capable). No immediate plans for it either.

This would be a show-stopper for us in our Data Center.  We have to have 
MPLS support for MPLS VPN.  How else are they planning on maintaining 
VRF separation between customers across multiple chassis in a hosted 
environment?  The only other option would be to use the Nexus as a dumb 
L2 switch with a 6500 upstream for all L3VPN functionality.  I would 
imagine the Nexus would be a rather expensive dumb L2 switch.  What 
about extending the customer's VRF to a sister DC in a 
geographically-diverse location?  MPLS again.

We're also talking with our upstream peers about them providing L2VPNs 
for customers to our DC.  We'd meet the providers are our fiber meet 
points with MPLS-enabled circuits.  Again, requiring some router other 
than the Nexus.

Say it with me everyone, MPLS MPLS MPLS.  It's silly to build any device 
without MPLS support.

Justin