[ncs 5500 in the SP core]

[Carlos A. Silva]

Hi, All:

Say you have a BGP-free SP core network with common services like: residential and corporate internet access, mpls vpn in all flavors, multicast voice and video, etc. What would be the reason(s) not to use an NCS5500 over other platforms like asr9k/crsX/ncs6k, that are classic/preferred core-type routers?

I know this might be considered too open a question, so a few specific bullets might be enough of an answer. I'm aware this might be a matter of opinion too, but pricing in the ncs5500 makes that platform a very tempting option.

Thank you very much!
c.

[Nicolas Fevrier · Accepted solution]

Hi Carlos,

several parameters will be used to decide if you want to / can use the NCS 5500 in your core:

- the port density: if you need 1G ports, only the NCS 5501 can be used today but not the 8-slot chassis NCS 5508 (a line card with 1G capability is in the roadmap though)

- the scale: if you need very large route tables (exceeding 2.7M entries), you may consider ASR9000

- if you need legacy multicast technology right now, it's not covered in the current feature-set (only PIM-SSM today, ASM protocols are in the roadmap)

- if you expect ZTP/ZPL ISSU, you need to target NCS 6000

- if you expect L3VPN features (as a PE) today and EVPN features, you need the ASR9000. It will come soon but still later on the 5500.

Overall, the NCS 5500 can address today most of the MPLS core requirements. More, it supports Segment Routing and MPLS-TE (RSVP), quite large routing tables (again, 2.7M prefixes is huge and enough for 99% of use-cases) + all the innovations coming with IOS XR (streaming telemetry, 3rd party applications in containers, automation, Zero Touch Provisioning with iPXE and scripting, M2M, ...).

Kind regards,

N.

[h.3brahimi]

Hi Nicolas,

   We are comparing the feature sets between ASR 9910 and NCS 5508 and the price is much more affordable if we would go for NCS. So would you mind sharing a list of feature sets that we are going to lose as of now, if NCS is chosen.

Regards,

Hesam

[Nicolas Fevrier]

Hi Hesam,

it will be quite complex to answer to this request I'm afraid.

The best will be to contact your Cisco representative and discuss the list of features you are considering and also the scale expected for these features. Based on this information, they should be able to tell you if NCS5500 is the right choice or not (or engage BU specialists to assist answering this question).

Kind regards,

N.

[smailmilak]

I can say that NCS is lacking a lot of L2 featuers that a9k has.

But like Nicolas said, it's better to check what featuers you need.

[Carlos A. Silva]

Hi, Nicholas:

I really appreciate you taking the time. We have been thinking about this box and it's been really hard to avoid looking at it as a real possibility. I'm aware we need to dig deeper (a lot deeper), but at this time it warrants the effort.

Thank you very much!!!

c.