[c-nsp] High Density T1 aggregation device - migrating to MPLS

[Pete Templin]

On 12/3/2010 12:16 PM, Rick Martin wrote:
>   We are in the planning stages for a conversion to an MPLS infrastructure, we have about 3,000 connections on this statewide network which spans 3 major carriers territory. We expect we will wind up with one vendor at the core. Assuming vendor A wins the core we expect we will have to provide hardware to aggregate connections from vendor B and C's territory and pass those connections on to the core via Ethernet.
>
>   Our expectation is that we will have 2 types of last mile connections to our customers - Ethernet and MPPP via T1's. Of course our preference would be Ethernet for all of the WAN links but at this time that is not possible due to the rural nature of portions of our state. We expect perhaps 50 - 100 T1's at a given aggregation point.
>
>   I am in need of advice on what products are available for high density aggregation of the T1's. I am currently researching Cisco products but do not want to limit my scope to Cisco only. I would welcome any suggestions or advice on this.
>
7200s do a great job.  7200VXR might be better, so you can run NPE-G1 
(for more memory) and IOS 15 for a lot of useful features on it.  
PA-MC-T3s should be quite inexpensive on the used market.  PA-MC-2T3 
provides double the density but more than double the price, last I saw.  
I'd keep individual 7200s to <=4 channelized DS3s to keep things sane, 
if you can.  If the T1s arrive on an OC3, I believe others have 
suggested a channelized card that'll accept this; I'd limit myself to 
one ChOC3 per router as well.  If the T1s arrive as individual T1s, get 
an Adtran MX2820 mux to deliver them to your router as DS3, or you may 
want to check out RAD's line of muxes as they had one that took T1s as 
RJ45 jacks (saving you the headache of wiring out the Adtran MX2820s).

At my last employer (which is where I got my T1 aggregation 
experiences), our plan was to go with a Channelized OC12 card in a GSR 
12008 if/when we outgrew 7200s.  Never got there...

pt