[j-nsp] M7i

[Eric Van Tol]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: juniper-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net [mailto:juniper-nsp-
> bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of cjwstudios
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 2:50 AM
> To: juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: [j-nsp] M7i
> 
> Hello Juniper folks :)
> 
> I'm setting up a remote metro ethernet site (fiber in a closet) that
> will have 2 x 100mb BGP transit feeds and a smattering of IGP feeds.
> The traffic will be service provider transit without inspection, NAT
> or other services.
> 
> Since everything is cost sensitive these days I initially planned on
> implementing an ebayish 7206vxr-npe-g1.  Although I was quite happily
> slinging the 7206 around 10 years ago I realized tonight that it has
> been 10 years and the 7206 platform is well aged.   M7i (M7i 2AC 2FE
> w/ RE400,PE-1GE-SFP) are quite common on the secondary market now and
> likely more than enough to get started.  Although trunking multiple
> metro FE feeds to a single GE port will be frowned upon I may
> consider
> this as an option.
> 
> I suppose my questions are whether a base M7i config out of the box
> will support this application or if there are better options out
> there.  Thank you in advance.

If your network is all ethernet and you don't plan on doing any TDM/SONET any time soon, I would look at the new MX80 bundles.  With the right discount from your sales team, you can get an MX80 with 20 1G SFP-based ports for less than $20K.  The MX80 has full internet route capabilities, 4 built-in 10G ports (although on the MX80-5G, they are "restricted", meaning you can't use them ;-)), and a "restricted" extra MIC slot.  All these "restricted" options are enabled by a simple license purchase.  The jury is still out on whether said restrictions are actually enforced, though - anyone have any experience with this?

The main problem with the M7i you listed is that the PE-1GE-SFP does not have per-VLAN queuing, which is becoming increasingly important in today's metro ethernet networks.  The MX80 SFP ports also support 100M SFPs.  You'd be much better off getting the MX80 than an M7i, if only for future-proofing your network.  Yes, the M7i may be cheap on the secondary market, but if you plan on having this in production and getting software updates, you'll have to have it recertified by Juniper, which is something that can become quite costly.

-evt