[c-nsp] XFP, SFP+, ???

[Jeff Bacon]

> I see you have 6500, but you make no mention of 1G or 10G being your
> requirement, if you meant 10G then I assume this means you are
thinking
> of WS-X6704/8 and in such case you can /technically/ get hold of
> coloured xenpaks (I believe opnext manafacture these) but I would
> personally not waste my money here.
> 
> If 1G, your options are more open, plenty of people manafacture
> coloured SFPs which are cisco "compatible"

Desire is for 10G. If I wanted 1G I can just have the carrier give me
switched enet and not bother with any of the fuss.

I could temporarily use 1G colored SFPs but that's IMO a throwaway. 

The bandwidth requirement is for 1G < X < 10G; primarily bursting to
3-5G with well under 1G average for now, eventually the average will
come up but that's 6mo-1yr+. 

Policing the streams to fit in a 1G pipe is not an option; the bursts
have to get through and dropping packets is not acceptable.

6708 uses X2, yes? Or are we considering XENPAK/X2 interchangeable from
the POV of buying colored optics?

Using an external box to condition the wave is an option but now I'm
paying bux for the colored optics in the box, plus the box, plus the 10G
to get into the 6500, which seems like a net big lose. 

-bacon