Nathan Stratton <nathan@netrail.net> writes:

...

This is what I beleave sprint is doing. They are using the new Cisco 12000 GSR with external router servers. It is a smart way of patching the problem. If you need more CPU or memory you can just add a bigger box and more RAM.

The GSRs are to move bits fast. They are not to act as route servers.

Sprint recently announced that they are deploying 622Mbps POS cross-country links, and the GSRs are the only things you can put on the ends of such beasts that are available today.

(Someone may point out that it may not be the only choice for very long, however, it's the only one whose design I know and have had any influence upon, and is therefore frankly the only one I trust, although I don't expect the people building the competing box will ship anything but a good product even if they are now rather deeply in bed with the cell-heads and about as transparent to most observers as the Kremlin during the cold war...

Well, Ericsson did spend around $1,250Mil trying to develop their own ATM switch as part of ther AXE family. A total fiasko.. --Peter