OC-192 capable routers/switches.

tsunami7 · ‎02-11-2002

Greetings,

I am looking for some information concerning what would be the various routing/switching equipment that can be utilized that will have the capability to support an OC-192 interface.

The reason for this question is that several school districts in my state have or will have various high speed/high bandwidth network infrastructures in place within the next couple of years.

What surprised me about this was that several districts were qouted as having various optical carrier lines, from OC-3 up to OC-48, with one district planning on having it's own OC-192!

I realize the the GSR series of routers can be configured for use with the OC-192 line, but was wondering what the cheapest possible router and/or Catalyst switch that could be utilized with this type of connection.

This is not a university(with the OC-192)but a school district with about 33,000 total students in grades K~12. I realize that the schools get some money for network infrastructure through a tax on all of our phone bills, but the cost of purchasing equipment that can handle and fully utilize this type of bandwidth must be very high. Also, what kind line charge is incurred by having an OC-192? It has to be substantial, because the last time I did any research,an OC-48 was several tens of thousands of dollars per month.

I believe in building in scalability, but I think that even with ALL 33,000 students streaming video at the same time, an OC-192 would be deemed overkill on a pretty big scale. This doesn't take into account the people that it will take to keep this kind of network up and going, as well as being able to optimize performance of said network.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I would ask the expert's opinion on this subject.

Feel free to E-mail me if you would like a few more details. Thanks in advance for your time.

james.feger · ‎02-12-2002

The original 12000 series router's had an OC192 setup but the line card was not a true OC192 card. I was a 4 port OC-48 card with 192 optics on it. The new 124xx series routers have the ability to do the OC192 with OC192 line card's, using next generation CSC ans SFC engines. I know this is a cisco board, but you aske,d so I will answer....Juniper has the M160, which several large carriers use for their OC-192 IP backbone. Avici offers OC-192 but the amount of rack space they occupy is twice that of a Cisco or Juniper setup. In my opinion, an OC-192 is overkill, concidering that UUnet, Sprint, Genuity...etc are still not fully OC192 at the core. Happy researching.

svermill · ‎02-12-2002

If I did my math right, this works out to about 300 kbps per student, every second, every minute, every hour, etc. etc. Depending on the disatance traversed, whether the fiber is leased dark, etc. this could be in the hundreds of thousands of $$ per month.

xavierchang · ‎02-13-2002

Exactly. Sure seems like unbelievable overkill to me. Can you imagine a situation where every student is pulling, at every moment of the day without fail, 300kbps of continuous feed (must be a huge videoconference that goes on 24 hours a day or something)? Seems really really really unlikely.

tsunami7 · ‎02-13-2002

That's along the lines of what I was thinking!

I think what has happened is that the schools went bandwidth crazy and purchased this stuff not realizing how much overkill that it is, and I think they are in for a big surprise when they see how much the upkeep is going to be on such a network.

Unless, they are getting HUGE price breaks on this equipment, and the lease terms on the lines.

Thanks for your replies.

xavierchang · ‎02-17-2002

Doesn't it make you just so happy that your tax dollars are paying for this kind of incompetence?

svermill · ‎02-18-2002

Maybe some enterprising young students will start an ISP and turn a few bucks. New twist on taking someonelse's lunch money.

xavierchang · ‎02-18-2002

Why? It's my (tax) dollars. You're telling me I don't have the right to complain when I know it's being squandered? Hey, if you think it's such a great idea, then how about we raise taxes on you so that you can foot the bill out of your paycheck and not mine?

svermill · ‎02-18-2002

Xavier,

I think it is outrageous and fully agree with your position on the matter. I have long vented at the tax that a well-known politician attached to all of our phone bills to fund internet access for schools. Here we see how that money is being put to *use*. I was merely making light of the fact that these little tykes in that school district are taking our lunch money in a new millenium kind of way.

One of these days you may find that surperior technical skills don't fully offest an utter lack of people skills. Chill.

xavierchang · ‎02-18-2002

Careful buddy. You talk about personal skills. Yet if you look at the thread you will notice that you're the guy who started with the personal insults first. I think this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

svermill · ‎02-18-2002

Xavier,

I will be the first to publicly apologize for even a perceived insult. So I apologize. But I have to admit that I'm not sure exactly for what. I just made a lighthearted remark about some kids putting all that wasted bandwidth to use by starting an ISP. I still fail to see how, but in some way you read that way differently.

In any case, its no big deal. I always read all posts with your name on it because I always stand a chance to learn something in doing so.

xavierchang · ‎02-18-2002

You implied that I have, and I quote: "...an utter lack of people skills". In my world, that's an insult.

But fine, I'm perfectly willing to let it go.

james.feger · ‎02-19-2002

Everyone.....please take this offline if you wish to continue the conversation. This mailing list is not here to support flame wars.

Thank you,

James