Internet edge router architecture: L3 switch or router?

[will]

General architecture design question based on some work at a customer. Customer is a dot.com, running their own datacenter. Edge routers are running BGP (full) uplinked to two providers; and EIGRP for internal routing. Currently ISP uplinks are 200 Mbps copper Ethernet. Since ISP uplinks are Ethernet, I am starting to question the need for a traditional router at the edge (such as 39xx series); and am wondering about the possibility of using an L3 switch (such as 3750x/3560x) with ip services image.

Some advantages are that I can consolidate the Internet edge router and switch into common piece of hardware. I am limited if i ever need some traditional wan functionality, but it seems like circuits are tending toward RJ45 Ethernet more and more these days. Some things running on the edge router:

1) Bogon ACL's

2) QoS on public IP's

3) VPN to partners out on Internet

4) BGP (to ISP) & EIGRP (internal)

Would I have memory issues with full BGP tables? Would I have performance problems with VPN? Don't know if edge switches support VPN.

Seems like I could also get away with IP Base image for simple scenarios with Internet edge default routing; or BGP accept only default route from provider.

tia,

Will

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

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Would I have memory issues with full BGP tables?

Most likely.  Also a 3560X/3750X would likely have TCAM resource limitations too.

Would I have performance problems with VPN?

Most edge switches do not support advanced VPN.  Some don't even support GRE, which I believe includes the 3560X/3750X series.

Seems like I could also get away with IP Base image for simple scenarios with Internet edge default routing; or BGP accept only default route from provider.

Perhaps, depends on your feature needs.

Typical edge L3 switches can be so feature poor for needs beyond basic LAN L3 needs, there's MetroEthernet switches that try to fill the performance/feature gap.