[c-nsp] carrier router models comparison

Andrei Radu andreir at gmail.com
Wed Apr 8 10:01:19 EDT 2009


Hello Manu,

Well the Foundry MLX/XMR is a layer 2 switching platform that evolved
into a layer 3 switching platform that evolved into a mpls switching
platform much like the 6500/7600. The MLX and XMR are basically the
same hardware sold as the core switching platform and the core routing
platform (rings a bell ?). Also much like the 6500/7600 it has a TCAM
based forwarding engine, as opposed to the programmable ASIC the make
up the CRS or the Juniper forwarding engines, which in itself holds
many limitations. So you really are comparing apples and pears when
comparing the CRS/T-series with the XMR (or the 7600 for that matter).
This pretty much explains the price difference.

The software pretty similar to IOS (not XR) at least at the CLI level,
don't know about the internals. If you follow the foundry-nsp mailing
list, and also the ams-ix mailing list you will see that Foundry has
their share of software bugs, ranging from "normal" to forwarding
entries disappearing from the hardware fib.

Also if I remember correctly the MLX/XMRs are 40G/slot and not
50G/slot (although the platform is 100G/slot ready, actually decix
decided to migrate it's core to the Foundry MLX 32000 because Force10
is having trouble going to 100G/slot).

Hope this helps. Maybe the nanog or the f-nsp folks have a little more
info for you.

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:51 PM, Emanuel Popa <emanuel.popa at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi there,
>
> due to the increase in traffic volume in the last couple of years we
> need to really think about the future of the network. we have deployed
> and we are managing a 50GE multi-ring topology network with Cisco 7600
> routers. i don't want to get into more details about ring topology
> restrictions, platform limitations regarding wire speed, huge problems
> with ether-channels or unpredictable load balancing behaviour. we've
> been using these chassis since 2004 starting with STM-16 lines and the
> PQ ratio looks pretty good so far.
>
> coming back to nowadays, 40GE or 100GE is not available yet, and even
> if it was, the price would be probably unaffordable. and now the
> question pops: what is the next step? the best answer is of course a
> mix of multiple 10GE lines with traffic engineering and partial mesh
> topology and 100GE ready chassis. first thing that comes to mind is
> the CRS-1 platform, but it is really expensive: from under 15K per
> 10GE port with the Cisco 7600 you have to pay more than 75K per 10GE
> port with the CRS-1. so we have to take into consideration what are
> the alternatives. i will try a short comparison:
>
> - Cisco CRS-1 16 Slot
> --- max 64 x 10GE
> --- max 32 links in a bundle
> --- 40Gbps per slot
> --- 100GE ready
> --- multi-chassis ready
> --- 10.920W max power
> --- 723kg max weight
> --- full rack space
> --- $5.115.000,00/chassis
> --- $79.921,88/10GE
>
> - Juniper T1600
> --- max 64 x 10GE
> --- max 16 links in a bundle
> --- 100Gbps per slot
> --- 100GE ready
> --- multi-chassis ready
> --- 8.352W max power
> --- 274,88kg max weight
> --- 1/2 rack space
> --- $6.547.000,00/chassis
> --- $102.296,88/10GE
>
> - Brocade/ Foundry NetIron XMR 16000
> --- max 64 x 10GE
> --- max 32 links in a bundle
> --- 50Gbps per slot
> --- 100GE ready (* only full slots)
> --- single-chassis
> --- 5.572W max power
> --- 107,00kg max weight
> --- 1/3 rack space
> --- $567.515,00/chassis
> --- $8.867,42/10GE
>
> I've also been looking at Huawei, Alcatel and HP gear but haven't been
> able to find a device to support more than 24 x 10GE ports in a single
> chassis.
>
> Here's what I'm trying to figure out:
>
> 1. are there any other devices on the market with same hardware capabilities?
>
> 2. why the huge difference between foundry and cisco/juniper?
>
> 3. if foundry is so cheap why hasn't it gathered more market share?
> instead it was bought by brocade a while ago...
>
> 4. is the netiron really a carrier router more than a carrier switch?
> anybody experienced it?
>
> 5. how does the software perform when comparing with IOS XR and JunOS?
>
> Please, any comments are welcomed.
>
> Best regards,
> Manu
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-- 
Andrei

"2+2=5, for extremely large values of 2 !"


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