[f-nsp] Looking to replace Alteon 180e with ServerIron

[Samit]

Hi,

I am using Alteon 180e as a L2 switch for my web traffic redirection to
squid cache since last 7 years, without any problem. The specs of Alteon
web switch says it can support 24k web sessions/sec.  But per interface
slb maximum session in the switch  is 21504 and total slb max session is
172032, which is not mentioned in the datasheet.

Currently I have aggregated 30,000 web redirection sessions per/sec and
I am managing this sessions by dividing the traffic  and sending it
in 3 different ports of 180e. I recently observed that 180e is missing
connection some time and my users are getting 'tcp reset" . I believe it
is hitting the box session limit to high no of concurrent sessions per
sec, though the box shows terminated connection occasionally because
while I bypass traffic of few prefixes to decrease the sessions it runs
just fine.

The traffic is rapidly increasing I would just  send the traffic for
redirection from just 1 port  but unable to do so.... What would be the
best alternative to upgrade this switch in terms of price and
performance?

I required at least 100k sessions/sec inbound L4 web redirection session
in one single  port. And 3 Gig port is adequate for me.

Nortel Alteon 3408E is way way too expensive comparatively to Alteon180e
which is available  in ebay for 300$. Can any Foundry's older models can
do it?  like "T8SLBF ServerIronXL/G 8 port Gigabit SX, 400Mhz processor,
32MB DRAM, Internet IronWare" , SI 350Any other good suggestions?

Regards,
Samit