Hi All,
My first attempt at a post here, it's a bit long winded but I'll try and keep it brief.
I have to design a complete new national network for my client. The existing network is to be totally replaced, the base volumes are 180,000 LAN Ports, 300,000 Voice Ports. Distributed across 500+ Sites within a National Boundary.
Of the old network the only thing worth re-using is the dark fibre physical Dual-Ring (One in the North, One in South meeting up at 2 points in the middle), where the majority of peering points have diversly routed dark fibre into/out of the PoP. There are approximately 28 PoP's.
My option is to build a new DWDM Infrastructure (even though the do not need all that Bandwidth day 1). Overlay an MPLS Core and use traditional ATM Aggregation to bring the sites into the PoPs.
The Sites will have full redundant access paths, homed onto seperate PoP's for resilence.
I will probably aggregate the ATM Layer (this will be bought from the incumbent Telco) and present it to the PE Routers (Regional Aggregation). with a mixture of speeds, 2Mpbs, 8Mbps, 34Mbps and 155Mbps.
The PE Routers will also be points where upto 20 distributed server farms will be placed.
The PE Routers will be connected by Dark Fibre to the Core Aggregation Nodes so Logical dual links are required.
The core will be a full logical mesh.(n(n-1)/2 lightwaves required. I've decided to have 8 fully meshed Nodes.
Core Nodes may if possible also act as Regional Aggregation nodes (if port density allows).
Voice - It is not economically viable to re-cable all sites to provide LAN type Phones. I'm thinking of providing traditional Voice Handsets connected to a range of Key Systems/PABX's but would like to run the trunk connections over a shared LAN/WAN/Core.
I would like to attempt to do this with all Cisco gear.
So now the questions.
Core Nodes - As I have 2 Physical Rings, it Means that when creating the Logical Mesh for the Core, nodes will have to have the capability to switch lightwave (passthrough). With 8 Nodes in the Core, I guess I could get away with a CWDM Solution if this type of switching is available - But I'm not sure it is? I would prefer to go the DWDM Route. So what would be the recommended Cisco box/cards?
Regional Nodes will require the capability to provide on the Site Access side ATM both Direct and Aggregated by A Telco,It Will probably support between 20 up to 30 Sites, on the Network side It will need to provide MPLS over DWDM. So recommendations for the Regional Equip (75xx/12xxx etc)?
Site Routers (CE's) will need to be able to support traditional IP/QoS/CoS type functions as well as supporting PABX Trunk connections. Are then any limitations on Cisco Voice Cards, i.e. QSig/DASS2 type functions? Is this a valid method of providing Voice Trunks across a common Infrastructure?
Once the Infrastructure is in place it is planned to create a number of VPN's for differing uses, some shared some private.
Anyhow Over to you guys, let me know if you need more information
Regards
Iain
