A question for you Tony. What does one do when one has an N port MPLS switch/router and has filled all N ports with traffic? Consider that each of the N ports will become fuller and that there will probably be a desire or requirement for N+1 ports with more to come. The lesson of the Gigaswitches and the ATM counterparts is that scaling beyond a single switch is hard. Yup. The obvious answer is build a bigger switch, and I believe (without demonstrable proof) that some fairly large switches can be built. The less obvious answer is to build a mesh, which I assume has been done for the ATM solutions. If you're familiar with the failure modes, I'd love to hear 'em. Yes, you do fall into the 'small switch penalty' in which you start using up significant bandwidth interconnecting your switches. I've got no magic around that one.
the forseeable future.
How long is that these days anyway? 2 weeks, 3 hours and 17 minutes. ;-) Tony