Hi

I've been reading a lot of the posts regarding multihomed hw discussions both on mynetpro and other resources but there are a few things that I don't quite understand. I will start with describing our planned solution.

Two BGP routers will each peer (full table) with an from the other independent upstream provider. These two routers will also have an iBGP neighbor statement to the other.

We first were told (from on of our intended upstream providers) that two 2821 would be enough. These would be equipped with 1GB ram. We've also been in touch with a CCNP certified technician on another office who told us that this setup wouldn't be enough and he told us to go with (at least) something out of the 3800 series.

After I read some of the posts here concerning BGP hardware I see that the tcam on these routers isn't enough and that I should go for something like a 7201 or a 6500 and 720sup.

I've looked at some performance sheets from cisco and the difference in routing switching performance between process switching and CEF switcing is huge. For a 2851 for example it's 7.68 Mbps to 112.64 Mbps (process, cef). Is the difference really this big? Because according to some of the posts here that imply that you should go for a 7201 or similair, it's because the other doesn't have enough tcam to hold all the entries in the routing table that comes whit a full bgp table.

So my questions is (finally):

Can the 2851 handle a full bgp routing table and route traffic without dropping packets due to high cpu load?

Note: Our current internet connection is 30Mbit and we expect it to grow significantly within the nearest future.