[64736] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Yankee Group declares core routing obsolete (was Re: Anybodyusing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Scott McGrath)
Fri Oct 31 13:52:05 2003
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 13:50:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Scott McGrath <mcgrath@fas.harvard.edu>
To: Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org>
Cc: Daniel Golding <dgolding@burtongroup.com>,
Suresh Ramasubramanian <suresh@outblaze.com>,
Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net>, lance_tatman@agilent.com,
North American Noise and Off-topic Gripes <nanog@merit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <027401c39f96$3d502840$6401a8c0@ssprunk>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Funny I thought a "switch" was a multiport bridge... uses the MAC
headers to flood. ahh makes me long for the days of Kalpana.
Scott C. McGrath
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
>
> Thus spake "Daniel Golding" <dgolding@burtongroup.com>
> > Hmm. Don't you just love it when folks say things like "Layer 3 Switches
> are
> > better than routers". Its very illuminating as to clue level.
> >
> > I suppose what they were trying to say, is that products that were
> designed
> > as switches, but are now running routing code, are superior to products
> that
> > were designed as routers, and are running routing code. Of course, this is
> > demonstrably false.
> >
> > "Layer 3 Switch" is like "Tier 1 ISP" - meaningless marketing drivel,
> > divorced from any previous technical meaning.
>
> I've always stated that "switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast". Thus a
> "L2 switch" is a "fast bridge" and a "L3 switch" is a "fast router". In
> this light, the Yankee Group is just now catching on to something we all
> knew a decade ago -- slow (i.e. software) routers are dead.
>
> There's a more interesting level to the discussion if you look at what
> carriers are interested in for their backbone hardware today; while I'm
> obviously biased based on my employer, I've seen a lot more emphasis on
> $20k-per-10GE-port "L3 switches" than $200k-per-10GE-port "core routers" in
> the current economic climate.
>
> S
>
> Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
> CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
> K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking
>
