[c-nsp] Cisco 8000

[Mark Tinka]

On 15/Dec/19 18:57, Nick Peelman wrote:

>
> we use 920s heavily, and plan to continue to do so. We are beginning
> to dip into the NCS540 for cabinet agg/ring-node/large-access, and
> NCS520 as 10Gb-capable CPE for large customers. but the licensing,
> etc, may end up pushing us into the arms of somebody else.

We are avoiding the NCS520 simply because it's IOS XR (too heavy for an
agile Metro) and it's Broadcom.

This is why I have our Cisco AM team trying to pump some sense into
their Access/Edge BU to bring out a proper ASR920-10G box. When ALU
(Nokia now), Juniper and Brocade were sleeping at the wheel back in
2009, Cisco pioneered with the ME3600X/3800X, and then with the ASR920.
Now isn't the time to be as sleepy as the others were.

Conversely, the MX204 makes the most sense to us for high-capacity
deliveries in the Metro:

    - We use it to drive a 100Gbps Metro-E ring.
    - We hang ASR920's off of it to drive <= 1Gbps customer links.
    - The 10Gbps customers go into the MX204.

Juniper are on to something. Now only if they could realize it :-\...


> BUT, Nokia’s support sucks. Juniper doesn’t thrill me with their
> silicon and sheer lack of port options, let alone capability, and
> nobody else seems to care about the sizing and power restrictions we
> typically face as a small telco, and the 2020s will be interesting to
> the point of frustrating at times, unless there are some shifts. or
> maybe i’m just too much of a pessimist.

Just keep hammering the vendors with what you want. Either they'll make
it on purpose or by accident.

I can safely say that on the back of our requirements to push IP/MPLS
all the way into the Access in 2009, my employer (in Malaysia, at the
time) was very key in bringing the ME3600X/3800X to market. Cisco had
other plans for it until we came in and asked them to consider the
future, as we saw it. As I've said a few times before, in 2009, we were
the first ISP, globally, to deploy IP/MPLS in the Access at scale,
affordably. It was a time when 802.1Q, 802.1ad, 802.1ah, VPLS, H-VPLS
were all the rage, and to me/us, that just seemed heavy and unnecessary.

So let's keep pushing them to get us that ASR920-10G.

Mark.