[c-nsp] Brocade Vs Cisco

[Patrick Cole]

Brocade MLX/XMR/CER/CES can be really good, I just wouldn't try to do everything 
on them, ie, P and PE, IPv4 & IPv6 full table routing, multicast video.
They do it all, but in my experience more software problems tend to surface
the more things you do at once and you don't want it taking out all your
services when this happens - design your network properly and seperate your
MPLS P and PE, and have seperate IP routers with a simplified
L2-transport-to-L3-router model for IP services such as Macca recommended.

Patrick

Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 10:03:59AM +1000, McDonald Richards wrote:


> We run a mix of Cisco and Brocade (Foundry). The CES/CER2000 units have
> proven to be incredibly high performing and reliable as an MPLS L2VPN PE
> device. If we need to offer IP services we haul it via a VLL back to a Cisco
> ASR1000 located at a central POP (high performance IP services but expensive
> forwarding so not suitable for transport) for termination.
> 
> There have been issues inter-oping MPLS L2VPN with the Cisco gear (in our
> deployment) so I'd stick to a single vendor for your PE device and try to
> avoid using LDP at all on the CES/CER platform as it does not scale as well
> and performs poorly compared with RSVP.
> 
> When it comes to price vs performance, the CES has been pretty hard to beat
> and we looked at a LOT of other vendors.
> 
> As for their IP capabilities, since we only run these with infrastructure
> routes (ISIS) and terminate VLLs, I can't give you any feedback on how they
> perform as an IP edge.
> 
> McDonald
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Bradley Williamson
> <bwilliamson at eatel.com>wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone have any horror stories or gotcha's  concerning Brocade? What
> > about success stories?
> >
> > We are looking at Brocade, Cisco, and Juniper for a couple of upcoming
> > projects and I am familiar with both Cisco and Juniper, but not so much with
> > Brocade. We have a few of their small switches in our network, but that?s
> > about the extent of my experience.
> >
> > We want to build an MPLS core capable of delivering triple-play services
> > and as part of that, we will be building our a MetroE network to provide
> > ethernet backhaul for mobile providers and also deliver L2VPN and L3VPN
> > services to our business customers.
> >
> > I am a little skeptical of Brocade. I just do not understand how they can
> > provide the performance they claim at half the price of the other guys.
> >
> > Any insight/advice would be appreciated.
> >
> > Brad
> >
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