Re: fiber switch for gig

["Kevin Blackham" <blackham () gmail com>]

We run nortel 5530. They are not exactly "cheap" by my standards for
24 GE (10k list),  but they do have 2x10G. Also they don't play nice
with rstp to cisco, and I still can't figure out how to get it to show
me stp port status. Both vendors in the tree think they're root. CLI
is tolerable, but if you get into lacp config or want to know what
knobs are set for a given port, you'll want to light them on fire
(many vendors suck this way anyway). L3 features are lacking. No ACLs,
pay extra for OSPF.

For 24 ports of GE and 2x 10G XFP, they'll work nice as a simple L2
switch, just don't stack em (does not work as advertised when making
changes under load), and dump some of the vendor proprietary defaults
such as nortel-mstp and mlt link aggs.


On 4/1/08, Pekka Savola <pekkas () netcore fi> wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Apr 2008, Andrew Staples wrote:
> > Speaking of running gig long distances, does anyone on the list have
> > suggestions on a >8 port L2 switch with fiber ports based on personal
> > experience?  Lots of 48 port gig switches have 2-4 fiber uplink ports, but
> > this means daisy-chains instead of hub/spoke.  Looking for a central
> switch
> > for a star topography to home fiber runs that is cost effective and works.
>
> Nortel 5530 has 24x copper, 12x SFP and 2x10GE (XFP):
> http://www.nortel.com/ers5530
>
> We don't have 5530's but we have good experience with 5510 as L2
> device.  In your case you may be looking for a larger number of SFP GE
> ports though.
>
> --
> Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
> Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
> Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings