Help with WAN choice

[oneirishpollack]

I am currently in the process of deciding how to connect a satellite location to a our existing campus networks. There are two primary campuses that provide core resources (email server, file server, application servers) that the satellite office needs to access. This is the first time I am dealing with the WAN-end of networking. Traditionally it appears we have inter-connected LANs via frame-relay. As I am looking at my options, I have the following questions:

Why would I choose a frame-relay over a IP VPN option?

Can I simply employ an Ethernet solution and run site-to-site VPNs via the routers? What are the "cons" of doing this?

If I don't employ frame-relay and PVCs, how could I incorporate a CIR to ensure a minimal level of throughput? Would it just be applied on the T1 connection to the Internet?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[vmiller]

1. If you have the resources to "manage" the carrier piece, with only a small number of locations frame is an option.

2. If your carrier provides these services then this is a good solution, you don't worry about the underlying transport issues as much. You are removed somewhat from managing WAN links, but that is not always a bad thing. You do need to craft a comprehensive service level agreement.

3. Managing A CIR would be more or less a function of what topolgy you chose to employ. If you chose a Managed services VPN, Issues like CIR and QOS policy are worked out as part of the contract.

[oneirishpollack]

Let me clarify what we are looking at and what I perceive as the options:

1. We can get ATM, FR, or Ethernet link to create our WAN connection - the questions is, why would I choose FR (or ATM) over Ethernet?

2. We manage our own edge routers and would be implementing a IOS-firewall and VPN the satellite location. The site-to-site VPN tunnels would be configured and setup by us, and would be created for access to internal resources at the host or hub campuses. All other traffic would not go through the VPN.

3. We set up a previous site with a FR link and then ran VPN tunnels to our hosts - no PVCs were setup between the campuses, only one PVC was used from the satellite location to the Internet. If we are not using PVCs, why not just go with an Ethernet using IPsec and skip FR and PVCs?

[vmiller]

1. We can get ATM, FR, or Ethernet link to create our WAN connection -  the questions is, why would I choose FR (or ATM) over Ethernet?   Pricing would be about it.

2. I'd use Frame only if that were the only option.