LAN interface vs WAN interface

[abillington]

This is probably a silly question, sorry.

I will shortly have Internet access and private leased circuits terminating on 3rd party kit that will then be connected to a Catalyst 6509 using Ethernet (with Sup720 in the switch).

The question I have is what are those interfaces? Logically I think of them as WAN interfaces, as they are the interface through which I will connect to the wide area network. What does the switch need to "see" them as though?

The reason for asking is I've been looking at NBAR and QoS issues, and I've found quite a few bits that say "not supported on LAN interfaces".

Any advice gratefully received!

Andy

[scottmac]

"WAN interface" refers to the traitional WAN: sync serial (with HDLC, Frame relay, or PPP), and probably ATM, xDSL, etc. - generally low-speed interfaces where congestion management an Quality of Service is most likely to be needed.

Ethernet, Token-Ring, FDDI, etc are considered LAN interfaces and generally (aside from some queuing priorities) have enough bandwidth to permit the free flow of traffic.

If you need QOS through the WAN, then you can set your 6509 up to assign the COS/TOS service priorities, and you'll have to work out the parameters with whoever is supplying the (real) WAN connectivity.

Good Luck

Scott

[abillington]

Thanks Scott,

sounds like I'll need the luck. The complication is that the remote site (on the leased circuit) has two user groups - one which is enterprise data traffic, the other public access WLAN. What I need to do is prioritise the enterprise traffic (Citrix and some other stuff) and was hoping to use NBAR (at least for Citrix) - which is not supported on LAN interfaces under Sup720.

Do you know if NBAR on Sup720 may be available in the future, or is it just not being done as it's felt those interfaces have enough bandwidth anyway?

Thanks again,

Andy

[scottmac]

I don't know Andy. If I can turn something up, I'll re-post.

Sounds like you've got a project there ....

Good Luck

Scott