On 13/Apr/15 00:15, Hamish McGlinn wrote:
The ACX series is more of a hybrid. They are probably more likened to Layer 2 routers than switches. They are primarily designed as Mobile backhaul devices where integration into existing IP MPLS infrastructure would be a cost saving and design advantage. You can see this with the other models that have the TDM (E1/T1) interfaces. Those models use SAToP and CESoPSN to move TDM based circuits over an MPLS network. It's all rather clever really. The Ethernet ports on those models as well as the ethernet only models are an extension of that. They provide layer 2 interfaces where you don't really require layer 3 services (such as ethernet based mobile backhaul). So they are a switch, yes, but more than that. They utilise MPLS L2VPN/L2Circuits to move ethernet over the MPLS infrastructure. Hence why I thought it could be an alternative to terminating the layer 3 at the edge.
What you're referring to are the ACX500 through to the ACX4000 units. The ACX5000 (5048 and 5096, respectively) are Metro-E switches (IP/MPLS routers, really). Unlike the other ACX models, they do not come with any non-Ethernet ports. Mark.