Mark Radabaugh wrote:
I'm looking for new core routers for a small ISP and having a hard time finding something appropriate and reasonably priced. We don't have huge traffic levels (<1Gb) and are mostly running Ethernet interfaces to upstreams rather than legacy interfaces (when did OC3 become legacy?). Lot's of choices for routers that can handle the existing BGP tables - but not so much in small platforms (1-10Gb traffic) if you assume that IPv6 is going to explode the routing table in the next 5 years. The manufacturers still seem to think low traffic routers don't need much memory or CPU. What projections are you using regarding the default free zone over the next 5 years when picking new hardware?
I'll give you the Cisco product answer since that's what I know. I'd go with the ASR 1000 product line. At 1-10Gbps you've exceeded what an 7200 (even the G2) can handle. The largest of the ISR (3845) tops out at 1/2 Gbps at max CPU in theory (far less in reality). You don't want a software router though, especially for a SP and especially not for an Internet edge router. The ASR forwards in hardware. The 1002 with no internal hardware redundancy can handle 5 or 10 Gbps and costs a little more than a 7206 w/ NPE-G2 or a 7201 (with the 5Gbps ESP). This is one consideration for replacing my edge 7200s with. The 1004 version currently scales to 20Gbps and can handle redundant RPs. The 1006 module also currently scales to 20Gbps but can handle redundant RPs and ESPs. All the ASRs have internal software redundancy so crashes should be relatively painless in theory, even with a single RP. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9343/index.html I'm looking at using the 1002 for my Internet edge and the 1006 for the core are smaller remote POPs. The platform has been out for a year or so and appears to be fairly solid. Justin