[j-nsp] MX204 and copper SFP?

[Mark Tinka]

On 6/Apr/18 21:47, Niall Donaghy wrote:

> You're exactly right Saku, those are the questions to ask, the design decisions to be made. I posit that as Juniper break this up into type-fpc/pic/port, and there is some indication of speed in the type name, they would do well to standardise, or abandon the idea. Currently even the documentation states the type indicates speed, for some types, then lists exceptions to this. My only complaint is if you have to remember exceptions, best not to use it as an indicator at all.
>
> I am certainly immersed in Ethernet interfaces more than any other, so accustomed to ge, xe, et denoting one speed, as per the deployment I work on every day. A little biased indeed. :)
>
> I categorically wouldn't want a single 'type' prefix. Agree on the dynamic update on linerate OID being an ideal feature to have.

I think we've been too used to how it's been done in the past. But if
you look at where we are today, it is very clear that even the vendors
did not envision a future where LAN ports would be 10Gbps, let alone
40Gbps, 100Gbps, or even 400Gbps, 1Tbps, e.t.c.

Kind of like the days of old where your based metric value for your IGP
was considered from 100Mbps, 1Gbps or 10Gbps links. Now even networks
basing it on a 1Tbps might be faced with a new problem in 5 years from now.

So I quite like the way Arista have done it, where all interfaces are
just "Ethernet".

In Juniper-land, we're so used to one prefix being aligned with the link
speed, that it's somewhat surprising when et-* denotes both 40Gbps and
100Gbps. Or why "c" did not appear anywhere to denote 100Gbps the same
way "x" did for 10Gbps.

If network operations have taught us anything these past 50 years, it is
to think a lot bigger than where we are today. And that means simplify
codification to be more generalized, because you never know what corner
you might land yourself in down the line, and how that could impact the
way you design hardware, the you write code and the way you operate your
network.

Mark.