MPLS PE router recommendation

Hi there

Wich router do you recommend for MPLS PE router?

The basic needs are:
- OC3/E3 capability
- L3 VPN
- L2 VPN

I've been looking at 7304 as a candidate (due to the price), but also on
the 7603.

At the moment the PoPs are not recieving/sending more that about OC3
speeds, but in near future we believe that gigabit speeds.

Any recommendations about the choice of router?


Cheers, Lars Christensen

 

And forgot to mention another requirement... AToM... e.g. ATM over MPLS
and Ethernet over MPLS.

 

both should be OK - my employer is looking at both (but that is someones
elses problem)

7603 is basically a Cat 6000 using IOS and maybe using the seriously
expensive OSC blades. Supervisor 720B or BXLs do a lot of the MPLS
processing in hardware, which allows you to use Cat blades for LAN ports. We
only do layer 3 MPLS.

but given the cost of supervisors vs cards i suggest you may want to use the
bigger 7606 / 7609 (or Cat 6506 / 6509) chassis - it will let you spread the
cost of the overhead equipment across more ports.

A lot of the older PE s in the work network are 7513s, smaller boxes tend to
7204 / 7206, and the recent boxes are 10000s - big backbones are designed
for stability rather than using the latest bleeding edge equipment.

A lot depends on scale rquirements and no of ports. QoS on MPLS eats
processing throughput on the PE when you use a software driven engine.

A stable, reliable, supported version of IOS that actually works with all
the features and hardware you need is another traditional minefield.

Plan on having a lab environment to test in......

 

The 7304 is good, but just make sure it has the switching capacity you
require.

 

Hi Lars,

You may wish to investigate Cisco 7300 Series Routers Data Sheets:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps352/products_data_sheets_list.html

as well as Cisco 7600 Series Routers Data Sheets:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps368/products_data_sheets_list.html

We were offered a Used 7603 only last Monday, January 17th.

Used 7304 is in good demand too.

3 different SMARTnet Eligible Cisco Factory Refurbished 7300 Series
Products are currently available.

Furthermore, 45 different SMARTnet Eligible Cisco Factory Refurbished
7600 Series Products are currently available:

http://www.bradreese.com/cisco-inventory-search.htm

Sincerely,

Brad Reese
BradReese.Com Cisco Repair Worldwide
United Kingdom: 44-20-70784294
U.S. Toll Free: 877-549-2680
International: 828-277-7272
Fax: 775-254-3558
Website: http://www.bradreese.com/cisco-big-iron-repair.htm