On 2006-11-02-19:16:36, Deepak Jain <deepak@ai.net> wrote:
10G is fine, but a coarse step price-wise. (boxes that are 1U that uplink 10G often have >10G of input traffic possible). I like being able to plug optics in as we need more upink. If its not feasible, well then. :)
As there's no specification for 2.5 gigabit ethernet (that I'm aware of), and SONET gear with pluggable optics is likely out of your league, I'm afraid that's a decision you'll have to make. :-) There are plenty affordable[1] options available 1U for switches with 10GE uplink ports. I've had good luck with the Extreme Summit x450. If you're a bit more daring, Allied Telesyn recently announced a switch with a similar port density, though lacking in the useful "bunch of SFPs rather than 10/100/1000 ports" configuration. More and more, I'm finding it difficult to justify deploying n x GE port-channels across dark fiber, when 10GE is a lot easier to scale and troubleshoot... -a (the other *WDM lightning talk author) [1] clarified as sub-$10k per unit, sometimes even in the ballpark of $5k with the correct discounts applied