Upgrade Path Options from 6500 SUP720-3BXL for Edge Routing

Wed Jul 30 13:40:28 UTC 2014

On Wednesday, July 30, 2014 03:06:55 PM Jimmy Hess wrote:

> I would generally suggest you look at it as a long term
> decision, at least before jumping to the next
> incremental (modest increase) on the upgrade treadmill. 
> It depends on whether the 6500 is still a perfect match
> for your network other than the prefix limit.    Your
> vendor should think of your equipment as an "investment"
>    to be protected, by exploiting your feelings of  loss
> aversion,   but the upgrade treadmill is a trap.....   
> next thing you know,  you will have to replace the
> chassis,   then you will need new linecards......

Next up the road are the 6800's.

Essentially SUP-2T's, so you get software parity Day One, 
but still the same supervisor module.

We are running 6880's (which are the fixed SUP-2T's, but 
with modular line cards), but only a core switching (Layer 2 
Ethernet) role. Great port density since the 10Gbps ports 
are now SFP+, but oversubscribed line cards 2:1, since each 
slot is 80Gbps, but the line card comes with 16x 10Gbps 
ports. You can disable oversubscription and go into 
performance mode, which disables half the ports on the line 
card - we do that.

IP-/MPLS-wise, whatever you can do on the 6500 you can do on 
the 6800, but I can't say for sure as we're running them as 
switches.

That said, if your goal is IP, just consider the ASR9000, 
MX, and whatever else other vendors can do in this space.

Mark.
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