Point to Point Fiber Connection

[thomas.green]

We have two locations 10 miles apart and need connectivity between them. A local provider can run a 30MB fiber connection between the 2 sites at a very reasonable cost. We would have to provide the routers however. I have worked with Cisco routers before with T1 channelized connections but am unsure how the the fiber would connect to a Cisco router in this scenerio. I need to know how such a connection to the routers at each end would take place, specifically what WIC or whatever else would be needed. I currently have a 1760 router at each site but realize that they are old and I m,ay have to replace them with newer models.

Thanks to anyone that can help.

TJG

[Jason Dance]

What sort of handoff is the provider giving you?

-Jason

[thomas.green]

Jason,

The handoff is Ethernet at each end.

TJG

[Leo Laohoo]

You can start with a 1921 and install a EHWIC-1GE-SFP-CU if your ISP presents you with a fibre.

[Jeff Van Houten]

How about a layer 3switch?

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Jason Dance]

I agree, a layer 3 switch will work.  Do you have any other Cisco equipment besides the 1700 series routers?

[thomas.green]

We have no other Cisco series routers. Are you implying that the 1700 would not work in this scenerio? It we were to go with L3 switches would the traffic have to be bridged from site to site? We currently have different subnets at each site.

Thanks,

TJG

[Jason Dance]

Does the 1760s have WICs that have fastethernet ports, or do they just have the default built in single fastethernet port?

[thomas.green]

The 1760's have the default single FE port.  If I were to add a FE WIC would that suffice for the 30MB Fiber connection? What about the different subnet?

Thanks,

TJG

[Jason Dance]

Not having experience with the throughput of this particular router, I couldn't say how well it will perform under full load.  Is the provider handing off a layer 2 link, or is it layer 3?

[Leo Laohoo]

We have no other Cisco series routers. Are you implying that the 1700 would not work in this scenerio?

Depending on what specific 1700 you've got, this family of routers can push between 6.0 to 8.0 mbps of traffic.  The value is expressed in HALF duplex and without any encryption.

If you have a 1760 then this model can push up to 8.19 Mbps of traffic (HALF duplex, CEF enabled and NO encryption).

So if your ISP is giving you 30 Mbps bandwidth and you've got a router that can do 2 Mbps of traffic (FULL duplex, encryption and CEF enabled) then it's a waste of your money.

[Jason Dance]

Considering that this router is also end of life, I would recommend against using it in a production environment.  An 1800 series router would probably work well here, something like an 1811 should do it.  Sorry, I don't have any other advise at the moment.