Re: Yankee Group declares core routing obsolete (was Re: Anybodyusing GBICs?)

[Scott McGrath <mcgrath () fas harvard edu>]

Funny I thought a "switch" was a multiport bridge... uses the MAC
headers to flood. ahh makes me long for the days of Kalpana.

                            Scott C. McGrath

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

> Thus spake "Daniel Golding" <dgolding () burtongroup com>
> > Hmm. Don't you just love it when folks say things like "Layer 3 Switches
> are
> > better than routers". Its very illuminating as to clue level.
> >
> > I suppose what they were trying to say, is that products that were
> designed
> > as switches, but are now running routing code, are superior to products
> that
> > were designed as routers, and are running routing code. Of course, this is
> > demonstrably false.
> >
> > "Layer 3 Switch" is like "Tier 1 ISP" - meaningless marketing drivel,
> > divorced from any previous technical meaning.
>
> I've always stated that "switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast".  Thus a
> "L2 switch" is a "fast bridge" and a "L3 switch" is a "fast router".  In
> this light, the Yankee Group is just now catching on to something we all
> knew a decade ago -- slow (i.e. software) routers are dead.
>
> There's a more interesting level to the discussion if you look at what
> carriers are interested in for their backbone hardware today; while I'm
> obviously biased based on my employer, I've seen a lot more emphasis on
> $20k-per-10GE-port "L3 switches" than $200k-per-10GE-port "core routers" in
> the current economic climate.
>
> S
>
> Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
> CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
> K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking