A long time ago, Kent wrote:
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 1997 06:58:56 -0800 From: "Kent W. England" <kwe@6SigmaNets.com> Subject: Re: New MAE-EAST [...] ... Find a co-lo where you can cross-connect without being robbed or build your own NAP, just don't use DEC-designed Gigaswitches and FDDI. Use full duplex 100 Mbps Ethernet switch or find an old Fore switch cheap.
Building an interconnect around a first-generation ATM switch is a lot like building an interconnect around a first-generation router, (think Cisco AGS or even Bridge GS/3). The first FORE switch (the ASX-100), as well as its contemporaries, didn't have the buffering necessary to adequately support wide-area traffic. I suggest that, if you intend to use ATM as a medium, you look at the current FORE switches, perhaps the ASX-1000. Such a switch would provide the buffering necessary for wide-area connections as well as support for newer ATM features. An ATM switch might also allow you to connect it directly to wide-area ATM services. This might, depending on your particular circumstances, allow some interesting configurations, such as a wide-area interconnect. Also, I suggest: o Don't use ATM DSUs, (ADSUs). They simply weren't designed for the sort of load likely to be experienced at a successful interconnect. o If you are the first to construct an interconnect with a particular class of equipment or a specific product, try to test the configuration under load before committing to production. - Believe your test results. If things don't work while testing, they probably won't work in production. -tjs