Network Design

[winsonlee]

I have five retail outlet and one warehouse and i wonder if i can connect all the retail outlet router to the router in Outlet #1. Some of the outlet is as far as 150 km. If i would like to connect all the outlet to the router in Oulet #1, does that mean that i need to use lease line ?? Is there anything wrong with the existing design ?? or is there anything i can improve on ??

[thisisshanky]

You can use leased lines (but soon you will run out of ports on the router at Outlet #1). In situations like these, looking for a Frame-relay option is much better. You can use hub (outlet 1) and spoke (remaining outlets) topology in FR with a PVC running from each spoke to the hub. Then you can use a routing protocol such as EIGRP or OSPF to control routing.

The picture attached is too small, but I think you are using an IP VPN (managed service). YOu could run your own VPN across the internet with one site as hub (Outlet 1) and other remote outlets having a VPN connection to the hub. You can either use router to router based VPN with GRE and IPSec so that you can run a routing protocol such as EIGRP or OSPF, or you can use DMVPN.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns340/ns394/ns171/ns142/networking_solutions_white_papers_list.html

[winsonlee]

yeah.. i am using an IP VPN service.If i make outlet #1 as my hub, what are the hardware i need to use to connect outlet #2 to outlet #1 ??

[thisisshanky]

If using point to point leased line or Frame-relay, you would need a router like 1700, 1800, 2600 or 2800, with a T1 wic on them (WIC-1-DSU-T1 or WIC-1DSU-T1-V2)