cisco 6500 series supervisor card

Athiqur Rahman · ‎04-24-2012

I am to plan and roll out a fibre network across london for my company. We require fibre router / switch at our at our 2 data centre. These will have lots of space for use to slot in cards for whatever puspose we need, single / mutimode fibre, dark and lit fibre, sonet etc. From out data centre we will have fibre connections to different locations in London.

I have been told the best way to go is the 6500 series since the company is willing to spend some money. Only problem is I am not really sure of what I am buying. The sales guy quoted for the follwoing

CHASSIS

WS-C6509-E with fan tray

2 x WS-CAC-3000W PSU

48 Port Gigabit copper

WS-X6748-GE-TX - £1600.00

He also quoted me for 2 kinds of supervisor card the WS-SUP720-3B, and the 4 times more expensive WS-SUP720-3BXL. I am trying to figure out which of these I will need for my purpose? What are the core differences?

Thanks,

Marvin Rhoads · ‎04-24-2012

Well your question begs the issue of whether the 6509 is really best for you. The Sup-720 is on the way out in favor of the Sup 2T. The 48 port cards don't do anything with fiber., etc. etc.

To your specific question, the 3BXL has more processing power for instances where one needs to process lots of routes - e.g., multiple hundreds of thousands. Unless you're a backbone ISP or running a private network with that many routes, the 3BXL is probably overkill. See the data sheet which comapres the two here.

I'd still go back to your assumptions and requirements and spend some money to have a proper design developed before going down the path of getting price quotes for hardware.

Leo Laohoo · ‎04-24-2012

He also quoted me for 2 kinds of supervisor card the WS-SUP720-3B, and the 4 times more expensive WS-SUP720-3BXL.

That's one stup1d quote!

Ask for the price of the newer Sup2T. Cisco has made the price of the new Sup2T comparable to the Sup720.

One more thing: You got quoted for a 3B??? A 3B??? A non-VSS version. I'm flabbergasted. I wouldn't quote a 3B, period.

48 Port Gigabit copper

WS-X6748-GE-TX - £1600.00

Question: If you wanted to connect a significant number of fibre, why are you being quoted for copper?

If you said that you've got money to spend, then I'd seriously recommend you think about 10 Gbps or even 40 Gbps. If you and/or your company is interested, kindly refer to the new 40 Gbps line card: Cisco Catalyst 6900 Series 40 Gigabit Ethernet Interface Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches Data Sheet