Re: Mikrotik & OC-3 Connection

[joel jaeggli <joelja () bogus com>]

On 2010-07-03 12:45, Alan Bryant wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Mike<mike-nanog () tiedyenetworks com>  wrote:
> > Mikrotik is great at lower end stuff where you have ethernet interfaces.
> > Real POS OC-3 however, ain't in it's repertory and would not be what I would
> > choose to route at those interfaces/speeds. However, if you must 'connect
> > mikrotik to oc-3', you might as well find yourself a cisco router of some
> > kind with a PA-POS-OC3 card and use it as a simple modem. Of course, for the
> > price, you might as well just let the cisco do what you're planning on doing
> > with the Mikrotik and get orders of magnitude of functionality and stability
> > out of it in the process.
>
> Thanks for the responses guys. Unfortunately, we just don't have it in
> the budget for Cisco or Juniper hardware at this time. I was hoping
> there would be something available for Mikrotik, but I pretty much
> already knew the answer.

oc-3 pos or atm is riding the tail end of the technology curve, there's 
not a lot of demand for new products using old technology and no 
downward pressure on price other than that no-one cares (large capex 
opportunity) any more and that they are readily available on the 
secondary market.

> While I know a lot of you guys would recommend Cisco or Juniper over
> anything else, and I also know that you guys probably think if you're
> needing an OC-3, it's time to invest in the big boys.

actually buying the thing is only one dimension of the cost of ownership.

in this case the price is also a signal that perhaps the other options 
make more sense, metro-e eosdh etc. of course if you need channelized 
atm for some reason you may have other feature requirements that are the 
decision point.

> However, I'm not
> the one who makes the final say on purchases. So, with all that being
> said, is there anyone who has any thoughts on ImageStream's products?
> They have a POS OC-3 card, and the price appears to be considerably
> lower for the router anyway, not necessarily the card, though.
>
> I'm just trying to see what options there are and make the decision
> off of that. If Cisco or Juniper is the only way, then so be it. I
> just want to be sure.