Looking for MPLS Guru

[NAVIN PARWAL]

Folks,

I need some real world advice on choosing the right hardware for MPLS backbone. Presently we have 7600's, 7500's and 7200 vxr's and we want to build a MPLS backbone. My question is that is it advisable to choose 7500 and 7600(sup 720) as the core of the MPLS backbone and the 7200 stays at the edge.

My understanding is that 7500 has been end of lifed and the 7600 is more of an edge router that does not support advanced features of MPLS. Could I use any of these routers at the edge and use 7200 vxr's at the core???

Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.

[sean]

Being the geek that I am, I would say 7600s with Sup-720 3BXLs. When you are trying to choose an edge router, look at how many terminations, types of terminations, amount of traffic and peers, etc. If you are going to do heavy optical terminations, or a large number of peers (transit and Internet) I would use the 7600s. If you just need a stepping stone, the 7206VXR is a good router with the NPE-G1 engine. Also, the NPE-G2 engine is supposed to be released soon. This essentially doubles what the G1 can do. Hope this helps.

[NAVIN PARWAL]

Sean,

Many thanks for the answer, I want to use the 7600 and the 7500 in my core, any recommendations?

Thanks,

[sean]

I have had some bad luck with the 7500s, especially when it comes to optical terminations. I have found that once you get them up and running, dont touch them a whole lot, tendancy to crash. I personally would migrate away from the 7500 and to the 7600, but budget is going to be a factor.

[NAVIN PARWAL]

Is the 7507 close to EOL?

[jayjorda]

End of Sale/End of Life has not been announced on the 7507 or the 7513 as of yet. There are no new feature or hardware being developed for the 7500. It's in maintenance mode. Customer are advised to look at deploying other platforms, 7200VXR, 7600, or 12000 series depending on your needs.