Dear,
In our plant, we have a Ring of Industrial Switches that run the Cisco REP (Resilient Ethernet Protocol) for fast convergence.
In our server room, we planned to place a Cisco 3750X because that switch is stackable (redundancy), supports this protocol and is ideal for our server connections. Also, this switch 3750X is adviced as explained in this document released by Rockwell/Cisco:
http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/td/enet-td005_-en-p.pdf
But now comes the issue: when navigating to the Cisco 3750X page, it says: "please consider buying the better next generation Cisco 3850". This means our boss/end customer does not want the 3750X anylonger because he fears it will be investing money in old technology. But when looking for "Resilient Ethernet Protocol 3850" we find out it is not supported.
The only switch that we can find that has the "REP" support and that is "Orderable / New" is the Catalyst 4500E-R (modular switch) with SUP6LE controller. If we want this redundant and put dual controllers and dual 10/100/1000 cards in it, pricing expands x6 from dual 3750X 6,000 usd to 4500E-R 30,000 usd. Of course, the end customer finds this also not acceptable and wants an explanation for this. We know that a REP ring can support 1-not REP compatible device, so the 3850 or even the 2960X will work, but customer prefers the 'ideal' solution with full REP.
Is there any solution for this? Can we expect REP to be supported on future 3850 releases? Is there any other switch we can use that is
- redundant / stackable / dual power
- has full gigabit connectivity + sfp fiber possibility
- is "orderable" and is not in the process of being succeeded by another switch
- REP + mst support
Also, what are the expectations of the End Of Life for the 3750X? If we could have any written confirmation that it will not be EoL soon, we can try and use that to still order the 3750X.
Best Regards,
Joris
