cheap MPLS router recommendations

Fri Oct 16 23:05:27 UTC 2020

Most Arista boxes can do pretty much full MPLS (with appropriate 
honor-system licensing) as long as you don't need full-table Internet PE 
capabilities.  At those bandwidths, you could easily get a used box off 
eBay and put it back under support (for more than you paid for the box) 
if you wanted to save some $$$.

Extreme SLX is essentially the same thing with a different badge and a 
different licensing structure.

An old Brocade (now Extreme) NetIron CER-4X (which is still supported 
and sold but nearing end of useful life for most providers) might even 
meet your needs.  You wouldn't need the enhanced route scale hardware 
which makes them cheap on the secondary market.  Avoid the CES even 
though it ostensibly does what you want.  The MPLS signaling on this 
platform is probably a bit more mature but also perhaps lacking some 
modern niceties.  Cost is probably not compelling if buying new, but IDK 
what they're actually selling them for these days.

Don't expect high-touch features like you might get from an ASR or MX, 
but if you just want to push/pop labels, signal L2/L3VPNs, participate 
in IGP with on-net routes, and move data around, they'll do the job with 
decent North-America facing sales and support facilities.

At those bandwidths and low port counts, you can also potentially use 
FRR or Quagga on Linux or *BSD on a suitably sized PC platform.  Linux 
has usable MPLS support these days, though documentation is a bit 
lacking.  One of the BSDs has had it longer and may be more thoroughly 
documented.
-- 
Brandon Martin