NTAC Peering Working Group

[Jeff Bartig <>]

Peering Working Group Members,

Internet2 is seeking input from the community on potential hardware
purchases to prepare CPS for the Fall semester.  CPS will be expanding
into the Equinix-Ashburn exchange and increasing capacity at several
existing exchange locations.  Internet2 staff have been working
closely with Transit Rail staff to ensure that these efforts are
compatible with the goal of consolidating CPS and Transit Rail.

For the Fall semester, Internet2 would like to purchase routers to
locate at one or more of the exchange points.  These routers will
need to perform basic layer 3 functions for IPv4/IPv6 and
unicast/multicast.  Initially, these routers would be integrated
into the Internet2 network, but could later form the backbone for
a consolidated CPS/TransitRail service.  The team working on this
effort want to ensure that a good selection is being made that will
both meet the short-term CPS goals for Fall and longer-term
consolidation goals.

The initial configurations being considered vary by deployment
location.  They range between 7 and 12 10GE interfaces and as many
as 22 GigE SFP ports.  The team is currently considering the Cisco
7609, Foundry XMR, and Juniper MX480/960.

If you have experience with these platforms, the CPS/TransitRail
team would appreciate any feedback you can provide.  Do these
platforms have any weaknesses that would concern you if they were
used as a peering router?  Do any of these platforms have strengths
that you feel make them a better choice?

The team is working quickly to come to a purchase decision soon,
so the hardware can be ordered in time for a pre-Fall semester
installation.  We would like to have all feedback received by June,
9, 2009.  Feedback can be shared on the NTAC Peering WG mailing
list 
().
  If you would like to provide
feedback privately, feel free to respond to me directly.  I will
collect the feedback and share it with CPS/TransitRail staff.

Thank you,

Jeff Bartig
Chair NTAC Peering Working Group


-- 
Jeff Bartig                  |  University of Wisconsin - Madison

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