[c-nsp] DWDM optics on 6500s

[Jeff Bacon]

> If you want to cut delay for switching, you may want to consider the
> new top-of-rack 10G boxes, which are typically cut-through.  You may
find

I'm thinking about that for within the datacenter. It's hard finding a
justification for the C-vendor's products though - a N7 is just too
much, and I guess the N5 is OK but even starting out it's not...
inexpensive, esp when it doesn't even include a meaningful layer-3
capability. 

I guess I understand the product reasoning - a large datacenter is built
around N7Ks, with N5K distro - which is great, if you have a massive
datacenter... but what about us poor saps in the middle and lower tiers?
Or aren't we interesting anymore? Oh, I understand, we're supposed to be
virtualizing and buying the 1000v switches...except virtual servers
don't do me crap for good... 


> Personally, I have a bit of a thing against X2, but that's just me.
> Make your own mind up.

Fair enough. 

> > 3) Does 6500 switching performance blow super-hard, or just so-so
hard?
> > (6-15us is ok.) Yes a 4900M might be faster, or a J-product, but I
don't
> > want to change platform really, I need NAT and don't want to use
> > routers, I want to keep box count down (co-lo), and having a whole
box
> > just for passing 10G doesn't IMO make sense because I'd still have
to
> > get it into the 6500 anyway.
> The 6500 is a great 1G switch platform, but doesn't excel in the 10G
> range, particularly with 6704 blades.

Admittedly, for the cost, I can buy an arista 1U for wave passthru and
just tap multiple 1Gs over to the 6500. 

Why "particularly with 6704 blades"? Is there something particularly
wrong with them? 

Thanks,
-bacon