SUMMARY: SONET ring questions

Tue Oct 20 08:34:18 UTC 1998

Peter Polasek wrote:
>
>
>Several people questioned the use of ATM on WAN.  We are not running
>ATM anywhere within the internal LAN and do not need voice or video.  The
>ATM interface is being deployed on the WAN because it is the only option 
>for 155Mbps connectivity - almost.  Cisco provides a relatively
>new 'Packet over Sonet' (POS) option that more effectively uses the
>OC-3 bandwidth because it eliminates the ATM encapsulation overhead.
>We are considering this option but are a little hesitant because it is 
>not terribly mature at this point.  I would be interested in hearing 
>about any real-world experience with POS from those who are using 
>it in a mission critical production environment.
>

Peter, POS works fine, it eliminates a whole switching layer which may or 
may not be suitable for your environment. Your network size and design 
will dictate your needs. We have virtually 100% uptime on POSIP links with no
i/f problems. Its pretty mature, we have been using it for around 18 months
now.

Regards

Tony