[13992] in North American Network Operators' Group
ATM Switches (was: New MAE-EAST)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Salo)
Mon Nov 24 11:11:34 1997
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 09:42:20 -0600 (CST)
From: Tim Salo <salo@networkcs.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
A long time ago, Kent wrote:
> Date: Sat, 08 Nov 1997 06:58:56 -0800
> From: "Kent W. England" <kwe@6SigmaNets.com>
> Subject: Re: New MAE-EAST
> [...]
> ... Find a co-lo where you can
> cross-connect without being robbed or build your own NAP, just don't use
> DEC-designed Gigaswitches and FDDI. Use full duplex 100 Mbps Ethernet
> switch or find an old Fore switch cheap.
Building an interconnect around a first-generation ATM switch is a lot
like building an interconnect around a first-generation router,
(think Cisco AGS or even Bridge GS/3).
The first FORE switch (the ASX-100), as well as its contemporaries, didn't
have the buffering necessary to adequately support wide-area traffic.
I suggest that, if you intend to use ATM as a medium, you look at the
current FORE switches, perhaps the ASX-1000. Such a switch would
provide the buffering necessary for wide-area connections as well as
support for newer ATM features.
An ATM switch might also allow you to connect it directly to wide-area
ATM services. This might, depending on your particular circumstances,
allow some interesting configurations, such as a wide-area interconnect.
Also, I suggest:
o Don't use ATM DSUs, (ADSUs). They simply weren't designed for
the sort of load likely to be experienced at a successful
interconnect.
o If you are the first to construct an interconnect with a particular
class of equipment or a specific product, try to test the
configuration under load before committing to production.
- Believe your test results. If things don't work while
testing, they probably won't work in production.
-tjs
