Hi,

I am in the process of understanding the 6504E in terms of technically feasible option as a Provider Class Aggregation Switch. (specifically looking at VS-C6504E-S720-10G, which is bundled option)

This 6504E switch will aggregate our Provider Edge (PE) routers and then connect to Core routers via uplink ports. Multiple PE routers (each via 1G port) would be aggregated to 6504E. The aggregation switch would then connect to core routers via 10G uplink port.

While short listing the aggregation switch, I come across VS-C6504E-S720-10G which has Catalyst Chassis + Fan Tray+Sup720-10G; IP Base ONLY; NO VSS. Though this looks a better choice for provider class switch .But, I am still not clear if this bundle option can support all the below requirements.

1. Multiple 1Gig/10Gig for Access/Uplink on aggregation - this is supported.

2. OIR feature for line card , modules, power supply - this is supported.

Not sure if VS-C6504E-S720-10G support all the below mandatory requirement

3. Traffic from PE will be MPLS labelled or non-MPLS labelled traffic so Aggregation Switch must have capable to look MPLS header ( i.e Lable, MPLS EXP bit) and IP header ( dscp, src SA, dst SA etc) when configured as Layer 2 port facing to PE - Not sure if VS-C6504E-S720-10G can support it.

4. Aggregation switch should support link aggregation for N*10G uplink to Core router with various load-balancing method like MPLS label based, src-IP, dst-IP, src-dst-IP, hashing of layer 3 and layer 4 info , L2 S-mac & d-mac etc - - Not sure if VS-C6504E-S720-10G can support it.

5. QOS on L2 switches for strict priority queue, WRR/SRR Queue to support policing and shaping with WRED with miinimum 8 egress queue per port.

6. QoS classification based on 802.1P, MPLS EXP, IP DSCP on layer 2 ports for MPLS and non MPLS traffic.

7. Multicast - IGMP V1/V2/V3, IGMP Snooping, PIM snooping.