MPLS in the campus Network?

Leo Bicknell bicknell at ufp.org
Thu Oct 20 15:05:51 UTC 2016


From what you describe I do think you have many options, including
more than just the ones you laid out.  When you're under 10km and
own your own fiber the possibilities are virtually limitless.

First off, you don't want to be running spanning tree across a
campus.  While I don't think you need to elminate it completely as
some in the industry are pressing, doing it at the scale you describe
is probably a world of hurt.

I would challenge your port cost assumption for "routers".  For
instance the Arista 7280 could deliver can be had with 48 10GE SFP+
ports with full Internet routing capabilities.  If you're used
to Cisco or Juniper, it is worth looking further afield these days.

I would also challenge that there is one way to do the job.  It may
be easier to build a couple of networks.  Perhaps a router based one
to deliver IP services, and a separate "Metro Ethernet" network to
deliver L2 VLAN transport.  It may sound crazy that buying two
boxes is chepaer than one, but it can be depending on the exact
scale and port count.  Heck, depending on your port count doing
passive DWDM to interconnect switches in each office may be cheaper
than encapsulating in MPLS.  A lot of it also depends on your 
monitoring requirements, or lack of.

In a message written on Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 03:43:26PM +0200, steven brock wrote:
> How would you convince your management that MPLS is the best solution for
> your campus network ? How would you justify the cost or speed difference ?

Well, cost and speed are two prime considerations, but there are other
important considerations.

Vendors support platforms and features based on the customer base.
If you buy a box everyone does MPLS on, and then use it for TRILL,
you'll be in a world of hurt.  Particularly if you want long, stable
life ride with the crowd.  Use a platform many others are using for
the same job.

-- 
Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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