From: Brian (signal@xxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Tue Apr 16 2002 - 17:22:07 GMT-3
How to add ATM to your CCIE lab cheap, Brian Feeny CCIE #8036
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Wanting to add ATM to your lab? Do it cheap! Yes it can be done
expensivly or cheaply, both are actually kind of expensive, but very
different costs:
Typically the first reaction to add ATM is to run out and buy a
Lightstream 1010. You don't need to do this. You can practice with
just about any ATM switch out there, Bay, Nortel, etc. Even cheap $200
ones. Its good to use MultiMode OC3 interfaces since thats what your
going to find on most routers used for labs.
For those of you hardcore people wanting a Lightstream, be prepared
to pay at least $2500 minimum. You will need a Chassis, an ASP, and
at least 1 CAM and a few PAMs. The cheapest you can do is:
L1010 Chassis
L1010-ASP-B-FC1 ASP module
WATM-CAM-2P 2-port carrier module
WAI-OC3-4MM 4-port OC3 interface
The above is probably $2500 minimum, probably more like $4000, and about
$1200 of it is in the chassis alone! One way to cut costs is to use a
5509 or 5513 catalyst. On these switches, the last 4 slots have
packetized backplanes and are essentially L1010 chassis (last 5 slots).
You can usually get a 5509 and use it both as your cat5k switch and your
l1010 ATM switch! saves a little money.
Now, the downside is the switch is the cheapest part anyways :). The real
cost of adding ATM to your lab is in the routers.
Most people want to go for the throat, and run out and buy modules for
2600 or 3600 series. This is when they find the NM-1A-OC3MM modules.
These modules cost $2500.00 on the used market! Thats $5000 just for 2
modules, and you still need a switch and cables and cant do full mesh!
Another alternative is to use older 7000 series routers. The 7000 is the
7-slot version and the 7010 is the 5-slot version. Cards are cheap for
these and easy to pick up. You can add 4 or 8 port serial cards, 2/4/6
port ethernet, 2/4 port token ring, hssi, atm, etc. These routers were
backbone routers not too long ago. The downside of the 7000 series is
they only goto IOS 11.2. Now for things like frame switching and ATM you
can still do alot of stuff up to 11.2, including CLIP, SVC, PVC, etc. And
of course you can still get alot of life out of a router like this as a
frame switch and basic multiprotocol beast doing some ospf/bgp/etc. Since
token and ethernet cards are so cheap (example: a 6-port ethernet card
might run you as cheap as $125), you can use it for DLSW and all kinds of
bridging (SRT/SRB/etc).
They make Fast Ethernet blades for these routers as well, so you can do
VLAN's form them. CX-FEIP-1TX, CX-FEIP-2TX, CX-FEIP2-1TX, CX-FEIP2-2TX.
Sure they are expensive for FastEthernet though, about $800-$1200
generally to add a 1 or 2 port blade, but I have some more tips below to
possibly make that cheaper!
When Cisco had the 7000 series, the routing and switching functions
(routing and switching of packets) was broken down into 2 seperate cards:
The Route Processor (called the RP) and the Switch Processor (called the
SP). Cisco made 2 versions of the RP, the standard RP which had 16MB of
memory and then RP64, which had 64MB of memory. For the switch processor,
Cisco offered a 500k version and a 2MB version. Also cisco offered a
version of the switch processor called the Silicon Switch Processor which
could do a new and faster form of switching called silicon switching.
These were the kings, and life was good. 7000 reigned for a long time and
was quite usefull. But then Cisco came out with a new series, called the
7500 series. For this they used the same chassis as the 7000 series! The
5 slot version of the 7500 was called the 7505, and the 7 slot version was
called the 7507.
Instead of using an RP and SP, the 7500 series used one card. This was
called the RSP. You see they combined the Routing and Switching function
into 1 card, instead of having 2 seperate cards. The first card was
called the RSP1 (later came the RSP2, RSP4, and RSP8). The RSP1 could
goto 128MB and had the ability to take PCMCIA cards.
7500 series were not restricted to the full sized blades of the 7000
either. They created a module called a VIP (Versatile Interface
Processor), and a VIP had 2 slots on it. Inside a VIP you could install a
port adapter (PA). The VIP had its own memory and processor. So you buy
putting VIP's in your router, you can have a more distributed setup, with
memory, and processor handled by the VIP. Inside a VIP you could stick say
1 FastEthernet PA (PA-FE-TX) and 1 ATM PA (PA-A1-OC3MM).........so it
allowed you to get more milage out of your slots. Those same PA's are the
ones that work in the 7200 series, like the 7206. The 7200 series became
a VIP-less platform, where the VIP is built into the chassis and all you
need is the PA's.
Cisco started making the later 7000 modules compatible with the new 7500
series. They did this so that peoples investment would be protected if
they ever wanted to upgrade to a 7500 they would not have to go and buy
all new cards. So the later revisions of most 7000 series cards are 7500
compatible. If you ever want to see if your cards are 7500 compatible you
can check CCO (serach for "75000 compatibility").
Ok, so the 7000 people had a path to migrate to a 7500 series, and would
only have to buy the new chassis. Even the power supplies from a 7000
would fit into a 7507, and the power supplies from a 7010 would work on a
7505............it looked like cisco was doing something good by providing
the path.
The people with the 7000's were not 100% happy though. There equipment,
including there RP's were being End Of Lifed, and IOS support was going to
stop with 11.2. Cisco decided to come out with a replacement module for
the RP, called the RSP7000. The RSP7000 is very much like an RSP1. It
can run the LATEST IOS images. Even better it would allow the 7000 series
to use cards especally designed just for the 7500's..........like the
VIP's and the PA's that go inside them.
The RSP7000 went in the SP slot, and the RP slot would be empty, but Cisco
also developed a RSP7000CI card to go into that slot. This card IMHO was
just a marketing gimmick. "What do we tell people to do with the empty
slot?", "I know! We'll make a card a tell them they need it!" So cisco
makes this RSP7000CI card, which is practically a bare circuit card, but
has a few chips on it. Its job we are told is to monitor the temparature
of the RSP7000 processor to prevent overheating. In all documentation
they say you must have this card to use an RSP7000, the truth is you
don't. I have run many RSP7000's without this RSP7000CI card. The
RSP7000CI can be hard to find as well, and usually fetches about $500 when
you do find it.
So where am I going with this?
If you buy a 7010 with an RP / SP, you have a good router than can use
cheap interfaces (frame switch, ATM) but can only goto IOS 11.2. Still a
good deal, especially if you only spent a few hundred bucks, or even $1250
with ATM and the works.
but if you stick a RSP7000 into a 7000 series router, you just turned it
into a 7500. yes a 7500. You can use all the cards of the 7500, the
latest IOS just like the 7500, and all you suffer from is that you have
half the backplane speed (like 622MBps instead of 1.2Gbs). You can use
the same PA's and VIP's out there just like 7200's and 7500's.
You can add a FastEthernet PA to a 7000 with RSP7000 installed for $250 if
you find a good deal! ATM for $250-300, 4-port serial cards for $125!
In short you have created an IOS 12.2 capable router, with lots of slots,
that can do lots of cool stuff for not so much money.
Think about this.............remember those 2600/3600 ATM modules the
NM-1A-OC3MM's? They were $2500 each.......just for the module, not
counting the cost of the router. Now look at this rough estimate of what
it might cost to get a 7000 series enhanced router:
7010 $400
RP $100
SP $100
ATM $300
So $900.00, thats like 1/3rd the cost of just the module alone in a 3600!
Now you say you cant goto IOS 12.2 etc, well consider this:
7010 $400
RSP7000 $1000
VIP2-20 $250
PA-A1-OC3MM $500
$2150, and you have everything a 3600 could dream to be and more. Cheaper
modules, ATM, etc. You could add fastethernet to the above for about $300
more! $2150 barely buys you a 3640 chassis.
A 3640 can do voice, it does have that over a 7000 series, however, I will
post about making router selection for voice in a future posting.
$1000-$2000 is alot to spend for routers, I agree. But if your going to
have to spend that much, to get ATM, or FastEthernet or what have you.
Make those dollars count, consider a 7000 series vs. 3600 series.
If anyone would like to discuss any of these options further, contact me
off list. I move alot of 7000 series gear, both RSP7000 enabled and not.
Brian
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Brian Feeny, CCIE #8036 e: signal@shreve.net
Network Engineer p: 318.222.2638x109
ShreveNet Inc. f: 318.221.6612
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