[c-nsp] Hughes v iDirect

[Martin Moens]

We host around 10 iDirect hubs for several customers, after quite a lot of
issues with previous sw versions I don't hear a lot of complaints from the
customers on stability, as far as I know the iDirect product has matured. An
issue with bigger hubs could be the large number of servers needed for
Protocol processors and NMS producing a lot of heat and consuming a lot of
power.
We run ourselves a Viasat Linkstar hub, this could also be good candidate for
the needs of th OP. We are very happy with the performance of this hub. No
experience with Hughes.

Martin


>-----Original Message-----
>From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net 
>[mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Ryan Wilkins
>Sent: 21/07/2010 19:12
>To: Cisco Mailing list
>Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Hughes v iDirect
>
>I maintain an iDirect hub for one of our customers, and while 
>it runs pretty well I have one beef that I wish they'd fix.  
>The only dynamic routing protocol they provide is RIP.  I've 
>asked about OSPF support and was told that they'd never 
>support it.  Otherwise, it has its quirks just like any other 
>system.  No real show stoppers though for our use.
>
>Our customer makes extensive use of VoIP (capable of 115 
>simultaneous calls at G.729) and also makes extensive use of 
>both sending and receiving live streaming video.  Be careful 
>of how much traffic you want to run through each remote, 
>though.  The remotes, and hub line cards for that matter, are 
>ARMv5 powered so they're not packet pushing power houses.  I 
>think the hub line cards can push anywhere from 11 to 22 Mbps 
>depending on software version and other options.  The remotes 
>can push traffic back to the hub at significantly less though. 
> We had an event a couple years ago where the customer was 
>trying to push 5-6 Mbps worth of voice and video out of the 
>remote location to the hub and had the CPU pegged at 100% 
>around 4.2 Mbps as I recall with V7 software.  V8 software 
>supposedly increases the bandwidth limit by double.
>
>If you want to make use of a lot of VoIP on the system with 
>small packets, you run the risk of killing your available 
>horsepower quickly.  I've never seen a published packet per 
>second figure for the 7350 remotes that we use but 
>unofficially that answer is somewhere around 1800 PPS as 
>stated by a senior member of the iDirect engineering team.  To 
>support the large call volume and still have processing power 
>left over, we had to employ packet aggregators from DTech Labs.
>
>To touch on training, they offer training the US as well as 
>some other popular locations worldwide.  London and Dubai come to mind.
>
>Overall, I think the iDirect solution is pretty solid.
>
>
>Ryan Wilkins
>
>
>On 15/07/2010 10:16 PM, Felix Nkansah wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I am evaluating which of these satellite offerings provide 
>the best IPoVSAT
>> technology.
>> 
>> The network would heavily use IP Voice and IP Video 
>conferencing among the
>> VSAT connected locations in a hub/spoke fashion.
>> 
>> My client (a government agency) intends on 
>installing/managing their own
>> VSAT hub based on either Hughes or iDirect.
>> 
>> I wanted to know which of these providers ensure the best 
>performance of IP?
>> 
>> Felix
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>cisco-nsp mailing list  cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
>https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp
>archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
>