Recommended L2 switches for a new IXP

Mon Jan 12 15:34:21 UTC 2015

Like Mike says, it depends on your market.   Are these markets where there are existing exchanges? 

Cost per port is what we always look at.  If we are going into a market where there won’t be much growth we look at Cisco and Force 10.  Their cost per port is usually cheaper for smaller 10 Gig switches. You need something that is fairly robust.

Reliability in an exchange is a key component.  If you go with a non-chassis switch make sure you have redundancy in your design.  We like Chassis based switches because they tend to be more robust.  But thats just my take on it.

Justin

---
Justin Wilson j2sw at mtin.net
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Managed Services – xISP Solutions – Data Centers
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Peering – Transit – Internet Exchange 

> On Jan 12, 2015, at 10:24 AM, Aaron <aaron at wholesaleinternet.net> wrote:
> 
> We used to use Brocade FastIrons until we needed more 10G port density.  We moved to Brocade SX's.
> 
> Originally, when it was 2 or 3 peers, we used an old Netgear switch. :)
> 
> Aaron
> 
> On 1/12/2015 7:07 AM, Mike Hammett wrote:
>> I look forward to this thread.
>> 
>> I think one important thing is who is your addressable market size? I'm working with a startup IXP and there's only 20 carriers in the building. A chassis based switch would be silly as there would never be that many people present. 2x 1U switches would be more than plenty in their environment.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----
>> Mike Hammett
>> Intelligent Computing Solutions
>> http://www.ics-il.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> 
>> From: "Manuel Marín" <mmg at transtelco.net>
>> To: nanog at nanog.org
>> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 12:35:15 AM
>> Subject: Recommended L2 switches for a new IXP
>> 
>> Dear Nanog community
>> 
>> We are trying to build a new IXP in some US Metro areas where we have
>> multiple POPs and I was wondering what do you recommend for L2 switches. I
>> know that some IXPs use Nexus, Brocade, Force10 but I don't personally have
>> experience with these switches. It would be great if you can share your
>> experience and recommendations. There are so many options that I don't know
>> if it makes sense to start with a modular switch (usually expensive because
>> the backplane, dual dc, dual CPU, etc) or start with a 1RU high density
>> switch that support new protocols like Trill and that supposedly allow you
>> to create Ethernet Fabric/Clusters. The requirements are simple, 1G/10G
>> ports for exchange participants, 40G/100G for uplinks between switches and
>> flow support for statistics and traffic analysis.
>> 
>> Thank you and have a great day.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> ================================================================
> Aaron Wendel
> Chief Technical Officer
> Wholesale Internet, Inc. (AS 32097)
> (816)550-9030
> http://www.wholesaleinternet.com
> ================================================================
> 