Nope, remember - there is no magic. Any mesh of PVCs that one makes over a switched network must reflect the toplogy of that network, and one can set up a matching set of active routing sessions and route weights which will cause traffic to flow the same way.
Yes, the switches are a bit faster and have less to do. Data moves through them in a few ms less per point. But as you said (and as I said in our discussion in NYC), relative to any distance, the speed of light guarantees that you won't notice the difference.
The question is: Will there be routers available that can make IP routing decisions based on 40-60kroutes and move 2-3 OC3s worth of bidirectional traffic? The building of the configs to have a routed network work the same as a switched ATM one can be automated, but it's true that it *can be* easier to see what's going on in a large-scale switched network.
Avi
Uh, yes. Like today. See NetStar (recently acquired by ASCEND). Their hardware does nothing *slower* than DS-3 right now, and updates the route forwarding table 20x/second. :-) This thing is a monster, and will make the so-called "state of the art" 7513s look like dogmeat when in full production (presuming the BGP issues get completely resolved). Coming soon to a network near you. -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - The Finest Internet Connectivity http://www.mcs.net/~karl | T1 from $600 monthly; speeds to DS-3 available | 23 Chicagoland Prefixes, 13 ISDN, much more Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1] | Email to "info@mcs.net" WWW: http://www.mcs.net/ Fax: [+1 312 248-9865] | Home of Chicago's only FULL Clarinet feed!