[f-nsp] NetIron MLX Experience..

[Richard A Steenbergen]

On Tue, Aug 08, 2006 at 06:01:45PM +0200, Gerald Krause wrote:
> > We're running a Netiron MLX as core router for a colo site with the 20
> > gig-sfp-line card and three full bgp views. Forwarding performance is great
> > and cpu load is minimal and the box has a lot of reserves. We're now
> > thinking about replacing our existing Junipers at some ixps by netirons. I
> > guess that they won't have any problems with a lot of bgp neighbors since
> > the cpu is powerful but has nothing to do :-)
> 
> That means this generation of Foundry gear does not use the legacy 
> route-cache/flow-based CAM programming anymore? Do you know how many 
> routes/prefixes fits in to the (T)CAM of a MLX or XMR?

Yes the new generation of gear uses a prepopulated CAM as a FIB by default 
(marketing name FDR, same as Cisco CEF), though there is an option to turn 
it off and do fast-cache type behavior, or use the traditional dr/net-agg 
cam aggregation.

If you're familiar with Cisco 6500/7600 boxes, the MLX is to the SUP720-3B 
as the XMR is to the SUP720-3BXL (except on the Foundrys there is no PFC, 
and every card has an integrated DFC which isn't upgradable :P). That 
means roughly 256k v4 routes on the MLX, and 1M v4 routes on the XMR, give 
or take depending on what other things you try to do with the boxes (v6, 
mpls, etc).

You can definitely tell these are new products, there are still a lot of 
rough edges to be worked out in software, but all in all I'd say they have 
excellent potential. The software features are still a bit light in a few 
areas (i.e. no self respecting carrier is going to run complex v4 v6 mpls 
isis bgp etc on them today), but this also means they're very lightweight 
and efficient at the core functionality. The 7600 is still the end all and 
be all of feature-rich carrier-grade L3 switches, but these are definitely 
the runners up to keep an eye on (much more mature and stable than 
Force10, Extreme, etc, and much better pricing and density too). If you 
don't need super-advanced features these could easily be good L3 boxes for 
you.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
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