Service provider T1/PPP question

Sat Jun 29 02:56:41 UTC 2013

On Jun 28, 2013, at 7:26 PM, Mike <mike-nanog at tiedyenetworks.com> wrote:

> I am a clec with colocated facilities, and my targets are rural unserved areas where none of the factors above are considerations. I just want to connect with anyone who's done this and has a qualified technical opinion on optimal deployment strategies; the business considerations are already done.

I find this fascinating, but here's the "scoop".

When T1's were the bee's knees (why is that a saying, anyway?) they were sold to what today we would call a "business" customer.  The concept of residential users as we know them know didn't really exist during T1's heyday.  Also during this time period MLPPP for "high speed" (yes, T1's qualified" wasn't really a thing, rather external multiplexers and HSSI (remember those fun cables?) into a DS3 interface were a thing.  Remember providers that did Frame Relay over NxT1 just so they could mux the multiple customers on to DS-3/OC-3 into routers?  Fun times...not.  Anyway, the customer would have a router, like a real router, well, a 25xx anyway, and know how to configure it.

That doesn't seem to be the world you're describing though, which is why I think you're getting crickets on the mailing list.

Here's my $0.02, this is going to work best if you go somewhat old school in the config.  HDLC or PPP over a single T1 to any equipment that supports either should more or less work just fine.  Static assignment will work just fine, PPP learned assignments should work more or less just fine.  Any of the things that can channelize DS-3/OC-3/OC-12/OC-48 down to T1 should work just dandy, it's all a matter of how many you have and your particular economics.  Bonded T1's is where it gets interesting.  MLPPP should be possible with modern hardware, but honestly it got a workout on devices that did things like ISDN, not T1's.  Still, if you choose carefully I don't see any reason why MLPPP shouldn't be reliable and work just fine in today's world.

If you're willing to do without modern features, you should be able to pick up a ton of gear that does all this for dirt cheap.  A 7513 with channelized DS-3 cards is still quite spiffy for terminating static routed T1's for instance, and people may even pay you take them at this point. :)  The CPE will be more interesting, there are several vendors that still make CPE with T1 interfaces, but that's much more rare.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/

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