NPE-G2 vs. Sup720-3BXL

Fri May 15 15:07:32 UTC 2009

We're stuck in an engineering pickle, so some experience from this
crew would be useful in tie-breaking...

We operate a business-grade FTTx ISP with ~75 customers and 800Mbps of
Internet traffic, currently using 6509/Sup2s for core routing and port
aggregation. The MSFC2s are under stress from 3x full route feeds,
pared down to 85% to fit the TCAM tables. One system has a FlexWAN
with an OC3 card and it's crushing the CPU on the MSFC2. System tuning
(stable IOS and esp. disabling SPD) helped a lot but still doesn't
have the power to pull through. Hardware upgrades are needed...

We need true full routes and more CPU horsepower for crunching BGP
(+12 smaller peers + ISIS). OC3 interfaces are going to be mandatory,
one each at two locations. Oh yeah, we're still a larger startup
without endless pockets. Power, rack space, and SmartNet are not
concerns at any location (on-site cold spares). We may need an
upstream OC12 in the future but that's a ways out and not a concern
here.

Our engineering team has settled on three $20k/node options:
- Sup720-3BXLs with PS and fan upgrades
- Sup2s as switches + ISIS + statics and no BGP, push BGP edge routing
off to NPE-G2s across a 2-3Gbps port-channel
- Sup2s as switches + ISIS + statics and no BGP, push BGP edge routing
off to a 12008 with E3 engines across a 2-3Gbps port-channel.

Ideas and constructive opinions welcome, especially software and
stability-related.

Many thanks,
-Dave