4500 SUPV v 6500 SUP720 w Classic cards

[johnson-richard]

Hi,

Does anyone have any real world performance data comparing a 4500 SUPV with a 6500/SUP720 with classic line cards?

The context for this is our budget won't stretch to the CEF720 line cards, and i'm slightly confused by the perfomance data published for system performance of the SUP720 with shared bus line cards.

So do you get better overall performance with a SUP720 even when you use the classic cards (32Gbps shared bus) over a 4500 SUPV (6 Gig/slot) system?

We will be using this as a LAN core switch (so not too much L3).

Thanks

[michal.grzelak]

Hi,

If You are planning to use standard line card (to use 32Gb bus) I would recommand using Sup V, becouse Sup720 is designed to support non-blocking modules through Switch Fabric Module (720 Gb).

You could try to estimate what amount of traffic is switched and post it, so I could help You find appropiate modules.

HTH

Michal

[johnson-richard]

Hi, Thanks for the response.

I'm aware of the fact that the Classis line cards will use the 32Gbp shared bus but the SUPV only connects to each line card via 6Gbps bus (4:1 or 8:1 contention).

So would it make sense to say I would be better off going for the Shared bus for up to 6 linecards?

FYI We're looking at 3 x 48 GigE cu LCs and 1 GBIC/SFP LCs.

[michal.grzelak]

It is fact that Sup720 is much better than SupV when talking about performance and functionality. Also when looking towards future use and replacments of line cards it is good chooise, but note that Sup720 can be only used in Cat6500 and SupV in Cat4500, so you would probably need to change chassis and that can be a big cost.

From my expirience I have Cat6509 with Sup2 and 8 line cards (7x48 10/100/1000 TX and 1x16 GBIC) in data center and it works great without any performance problems.

To sum up. Sup720 is designed mostly for non-blocking line cards X67xx in Catalyst 6500, whereas SupV for classis line cards in Cat4500.

HTH

Michal

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"So do you get better overall performance with a SUP720 even when you use the classic cards (32Gbps shared bus) over a 4500 SUPV (6 Gig/slot) system?"

The sup720 when using non-fabric cards is only rated at 15 Mpps. The supV supports up to 72 Mpps and 96 Gbps, the latter using a switch fabric. So, the 4500 should support a higher load.