Re: NPE-G2 vs. Sup720-3BXL

[Arie Vayner <arievayner () gmail com>]

David,

My 1st advice would be to look also at the other features/capabilities you
require, and not just at "feeds and speeds".

Some examples for functionality could be:
- QOS
- NetFlow
- DDoS resistance

In general the 6500 and the 12000 are hardware based platforms, with the
12000 being more distributed in nature, using linecard resources for data
plane (6500 does it too if you have DFC installed). 7200 is a CPU/software
based platform, so the same processor does packet forwarding and control
plane processing.

The 6500 (depends on specific module selection) is more restricted with QOS
and NetFlow functionality as it is designed to do very fast forwarding at a
relativly cheaper price.
The 12000 has everything implemented in hardware, and depends on the engine
types (don't use anything other than Eng 3 or 5) has all the support you may
dream of for things like QOS and other features.
The 7200 is a software based router, which means that it support any feature
you may ever dream of, but the scalability decreases as you turn them on.

Another option you should consider seriously should be the ASR1000 router,
which is a newer platform and has a new architecture. All its features are
based on hardware support, and it could actually prove the best choice for
what you need.
The ASR1002 comes with 4 integrated 1GE ports, which could be all that you
would ever need (but it has quite a few extension slots left).

Arie

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 6:07 PM, David Storandt <dstorandt () teljet com>wrote:

> We're stuck in an engineering pickle, so some experience from this
> crew would be useful in tie-breaking...
>
> We operate a business-grade FTTx ISP with ~75 customers and 800Mbps of
> Internet traffic, currently using 6509/Sup2s for core routing and port
> aggregation. The MSFC2s are under stress from 3x full route feeds,
> pared down to 85% to fit the TCAM tables. One system has a FlexWAN
> with an OC3 card and it's crushing the CPU on the MSFC2. System tuning
> (stable IOS and esp. disabling SPD) helped a lot but still doesn't
> have the power to pull through. Hardware upgrades are needed...
>
> We need true full routes and more CPU horsepower for crunching BGP
> (+12 smaller peers + ISIS). OC3 interfaces are going to be mandatory,
> one each at two locations. Oh yeah, we're still a larger startup
> without endless pockets. Power, rack space, and SmartNet are not
> concerns at any location (on-site cold spares). We may need an
> upstream OC12 in the future but that's a ways out and not a concern
> here.
>
> Our engineering team has settled on three $20k/node options:
> - Sup720-3BXLs with PS and fan upgrades
> - Sup2s as switches + ISIS + statics and no BGP, push BGP edge routing
> off to NPE-G2s across a 2-3Gbps port-channel
> - Sup2s as switches + ISIS + statics and no BGP, push BGP edge routing
> off to a 12008 with E3 engines across a 2-3Gbps port-channel.
>
> Ideas and constructive opinions welcome, especially software and
> stability-related.
>
> Many thanks,
> -Dave