Suggestion for a L3 Switch for our CORE NETWORK

[bankan19791]

Hi,

Actually I am searching a good L3 switch for our CORE NETWORK. Below are some features that I need  must & I have searched the product on the basis of below mentioned features:

S No.	Features	Catalyst 3850 (WS-C3850-24XS-E)
1	Port Density	24 or 48 port 1/10-Gbps SFP+
2	Switching capacity	Maximum
3	MAC addresses	Maximum
4	Total number of IPv4 routes (ARP plus learned routes)	Maximum
5	Total switched virtual interfaces (SVIs)	Maximum
6	Forwarding Rate of Switch Models	Maximum
7	QoS features(CoS and DSCP, Rate limiting, class maps, policy maps)	All
8	Supported Routing features	EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, PIM, and IPv6 routing such as OSPFv3 and EIGRPv6
9	DHCP	DHCP Server, DHCP Client, DHCP Snooping,  DHCP Relay Agent, DHCPv6 Server Stateless Autoconfiguration, DHCPv6 Relay,

After many search, I have selected three switch i.e. Catalyst 3850 (WS-C3850-24XS-E), Cisco Catalyst 4500-X, Nexus 9300 (N9K-C9372PX). As far as I know for core network it's better to use Catalyst rather than using Nexus. I compared the above mentioned features between three switches & found Nexus is the best switch among them and also it's very cost effective. 

So, my question is, can i go for Nexus & if not then, please suggest me other Cisco product. Please don't suggest any chassis switch, because we are using Cisco 6506 as our core switch.

If you have any queries please contact me anytime.

Regards,

A

[Leo Laohoo]

As far as I know for core network it's better to use Catalyst rather than using Nexus.

Both true and false.  

Nexus core switch, particularly Nexus 7K &/or 9K, will depend entirely on the amount and complexity of the SERVERS farms.  Nexus switches are designed for server farms and not for day-to-day use.  

So, my question is, can i go for Nexus & if not then, please suggest me other Cisco product.

This depends on what you're trying to do and how much the budget for this project is.  To pick a chassis-based system (or not) will depend entirely upon the design of the network and not "I just don't like it".  Using the 3850 as a "core switch" may work for some & it won't work for another.  Again, it depends on the network being used.  

[bankan19791]

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your valuable suggestion. Actually we have four upstream provider who are serving bandwidth to us. All the links are 10Gbps. Total internet bandwidth is 30Gbps[Appx.]. We have GGC & AKAMAI & HTTP CACHE server also. They are connected with our core switch also. We have fifty bandwidth management servers and all the servers are using 1Gbps or 2Gbps link. Actually from the beginning we were running separate  upstream provider link in separate L3 switch. But when we have decided to run all the upstream link in a single switch then we bought CISCO 6506 with SUP 2T. After shifted all the links  to the 6506 we were getting huge latency & packet drop. After many testing we found that the line card that we are using is 20Gbps capacity. We can easily go for 40Gbps link card but. But it will not sufficient for our network in next 3-5 years & also the cost of the line card is very high. Now, we are running per provider per switch basis. But we want to run a single switch for all provider. Below are the features that we must needed:

1)  High 10G port density

2) High throughput

3) More routing table entry[ we are accepting default route now. In future we are thinking to accepting whole route from upstream provider]

4) Maximum Dynamic routing IPv4 & IPv6

5) Maximum VLAN

6) Maximum SVI

7) Maximum Ether channel

8) Maximum ARP

9) DSCP, COS, QOS[Right now we don't configure any DSCP for services. They are set in our servers. We just want to trust the interfaces for DSCP]

If you have any more query please contact me.

Regards,

A

[Leo Laohoo]

Actually we have four upstream provider who are serving bandwidth to us. All the links are 10Gbps. Total internet bandwidth is 30Gbps[Appx.].

A layer 3 switch ain't going to help you with this.  If you require NAT then you need a router that can support 30 Gbps.  Layer 3 switch will not/never support NAT.  

We have fifty bandwidth management servers and all the servers are using 1Gbps or 2Gbps link. Actually from the beginning we were running separate  upstream provider link in separate L3 switch. But when we have decided to run all the upstream link in a single switch then we bought CISCO 6506 with SUP 2T. After shifted all the links  to the 6506 we were getting huge latency & packet drop. After many testing we found that the line card that we are using is 20Gbps capacity. We can easily go for 40Gbps link card but. But it will not sufficient for our network in next 3-5 years & also the cost of the line card is very high. Now, we are running per provider per switch basis.

Cisco is about to announce the release of a new supervisor card, Sup6T, in the next few weeks and is aimed at 40- and 100 Gbps.

The specifications you seek doesn't really help because there are a lot of "Maximum".  Put a number.  For example, the maximum amount of VLANs is 4096 and there ain't anything higher than that. 

1)  High 10G port density

Pffffft, how many?  10?  20?  30?  100? 

2) High throughput

Put a number down.  To some people 100 Mbps is considered as "high throuput".  To the extreme side, 1000 Gbps is considered HT.  Put a number. 

[bankan19791]

Hi Leo,

We are not using L3 switch for NAT purpose. NAT is happening at our bandwidth management server.

We need at least 24-48X10 Gbps port. 48 port will be better for us.

Throughput at least we need 1-2 Tbps.

Regards,

A

[Leo Laohoo]

Throughput at least we need 1-2 Tbps.

1-2 Tbps????  Is this for WAN or LAN?

[bankan19791]

Hi Leo,

Sorry for the late reply. Actually I want to say about switching capacity not throughput.

I am little confuse to understand what is switching capacity & throughput. I have attached the comparison of catalyst 3850 & nexus 9k. Please find the attachment.

Regards,

A

[Leo Laohoo]

What is the BUDGET for all of these toys?

[bankan19791]

Hi Leo,

The maximum budget is $30,000-40,000.

Regards,

A

[Leo Laohoo]

Please attach a network diagram of the current network and the planned network after the core switch is installed.