Nortel OR Cisco Switches

[abahattab]

Which is better in terms of data and voice Nortel switch (passport 8606) or Cisco (4500R series)? and Why?

We have a LAN in the campus, which has 12 buildings. the connection between the buildings is Fiber and a CAT6 in each building (each building is two floors). We would like to ues the above Swich (Nortel or cisco) as a core switch. Which one is the best for this senario?

in the future we would likre to have Voice over Frame Relay between our branches located in 20 cities.

Best regards,

Thabks in advance for your time.

Dr. Bahattab

Vice-dean

College of Telecommunication and Electronics

[beckmanp]

First you need to look at the VoIP solution. I have used both switches/routers extensivley and each has it's good and bad points. When it comes to troubleshooting getting information from the passport 8600 is next to impossible (at present). However, if you are using a Nortel VoIP solution you may get better support from Nortel if you use their equipment. The same goes for Cisco. Also setting up QoS for the different solutions is something to look at. Again whoever you choose for voice may be a better solution.

Having said that if I had to choose between the two I would go for the Cisco any day. I find the ongoing support as well as the breadth of product is far superior. That is my opinion.

[Prashanth Krishnappa]

I second it...go CISCO :-)