You are modest in your budgetary request. Just the Cisco router (GSR 12406) we had on free loan listed at close to a million dollars, and the OC192 links just from Sunnyvale to Chicago would have cost what was left of the million/per month.
No, your budget folks have no clue, which they clearly demonstrate. Anyone here who buys Cisco at the list prices works for companies that for some reason want to waste money. We pay about 10c on a dollar. Anyone leasing OC-192 at that price as opposite to lighting it up is smoking.
"What am I missing here, theres OC48=2.4Gb, OC192=10Gb ..."
We were running host to host (end-to-end) with a single stream with common off the shelf equipment, there are not too many (I think none) > 1GE host NICs available today that are in production (e.g. without signing a non-disclosure agreement).
Again, if this is all available today, what is so new that you guys have done, apart from blowing tons of money?
The remarks about window size and buffer are interesting also. It is true large windows are needed. To approach 1Gbits/s we require 40MByte windows. If this is going to be a problem, then we need to raise question like this soon and figure out how to address (add more memory, use other protocols etc.). In practice to approcah 2.5Gbits/s requires 120MByte windows.
I am quite happy to concede that this does not need to be about some jocks beating a record. I do think it is important to catch the public's attention to why high speeds are important, that they are achievable today application to application (it would also be useful to estimate when such speeds are available to universities, large companies, small companies, the home etc.), and for techies it is important to start to understand the challenges the high speeds raise, e.g. cpu and router memories, bugs in TCP, OS, application etc., new TCP stacks, new (possibly UDP based) protocols such as tsunami, need for 64 bit counters in monitoring, effects of the NIC card, jumbo requirements etc., and what is needed to address them. Also to try and put it in meaningful terms (such as 2 full length DVD movies in a minute, that could also increase the "cease and desist" legal messages shipped ;-)) is important.
High speeds are not important. High speeds at a *reasonable* cost are important. What you are describing is a high speed at an *unreasonable* cost. Alex