Need some advice on the Cisco ONS 15454

[west33637]

hello all. We are a company that has relied on ATT provided ATM metro services for years. We are now looking to purchase our own dark fiber in our core network going forward. As a result, we are meeting with Cisco to purchase the Cisco 15454 ONS switches for DWDM. Just to provide a little background, I am quite proficient in routing and switching, but don't know anything about configuring DWDM.

My question is, what kinds of questions can you suggest I ask Cisco to get the most out of this meeting? Thanks,

[Tom Randstrom]

I am curious as to what your network requirements are?

-Qty of sites to be interconnected

-Are all the sites within a metro area?

-Protocols/interfaces to be transported

-Bandwidth requirements between sites

What has caused your decision to move away from your current service provider?  You might also consider a managed optical network.

There will definitely be a learning curve to move into DWDM, but this shouldn't be insurmountable given your aptitude to learn switching and routing.

Tom