Jeff,
I don't have as much experience as you but would like to give it a try and
bring up a few points.
Pleas see inline.
Albert
***************************************
Here's the scenario I proposed:
We would get an OC-3 pipe from MCI-WorldCom here at our main site, which
would then in turn connect to a Cisco 6000-series switch w/ a router module
in it. The main OC pipe would then be broken into T1 links and sent out to
each site via MCI's frame cloud. Each site will have a Cisco 2610 router
that will connect to a lower-end switch, probably a Catalyst 1900, to allow
all users at each site (usually between 30-60 people) to connect to the
internet and be in touch w/ the home office. I want to set up queuing on
the router to allow video traffic to have the highest priority. In effect,
I'm setting up the main office as sort of an ISP--this is the way it has to
be, for political and financial reasons. All the satellite sites must
connect back to us, and then go out to the internet. All sites run only
TCP/IP.
Now, here are my questions.
1. From what MCI tells me, OC-x links are ATM. I want to use frame relay
to connect the remote sites, rather than have the 2610's at each site have
to perform LANE--I don't even know if they do LANE or not. The 6000-series
switch is a pretty powerful piece of equipment, but am I asking too much of
it to handle all the work here? I've scoured Cisco's website, and I can't
find out if the 6000 will do LANE either. How would I go about translating
ATM cells to Frame Relay frames?
>>>I see that Cat6000 has blade for OC-12ATM. You can also use the FlexWAN
module, it allow you to use any of the 7200/7500 WAN port adapters.
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/cisco/mkt/switch/cat/6000/prodlit/c6ins_
ds.htm
You can use the OC3 (PA-POS-OC3MM) and 2-port T-3 (PA-2T3).
2. What sort of routing protocol should I use? I was thinking of OSPF,
simply because I don't want to clog up the links w/ routing table
advertisements. The remote sites won't be talking to each other all that
much--I'm envisioning more of a "hub-and-spoke" kind of arrangement. Also,
will I need to use BGP at the main site, and make one big AS out of my home
site and all my remote sites?
>>>how about static routing for internal? If all your site will be
connecting to one location only, there is no need for the other site to know
any route but to main office. The main office will know all the route
because it has direct connection to all of your offices. I am not sure
about your connection to the internet, just make it the default gateway.
3. Where would you put a firewall in this design?
>>>In this design, you will be running the firewall in your Cat6000. I am
not sure if you can run the Firewall feature pack on the WAN module.
Firewall always goes between your internal and external network.
4. Is the 6000 switch/router idea the best way to go here, or should I have
a pure router, like a 7000-series?
>>>You are putting a lot of faith into one box. I am not worry about the
6000 being powerful enough but what happen if that one box fail. By putting
the firewall, router, switching into one box; you are creating weakness into
your network. All of your locations will have no communication if one
thing break. I think that you have to put some thought into backup. Can you
imagine having 200+ locations calling you because of no connection to email?
Some idea, use a phone line at each satellite location as backup (low speed
but cheaper than ISDN) Or use xDSL with PPTP/IPsec. FrameRelay does go
down. If you are using only the Cat6000 as your main office switch, the
office will come to a complete stop if it go down.
>>>Have fun, this looks very interesting.
OK, that's all. Thanks for reading this far. All comments welcome, feel
free to pick this design apart if you wish. Like I said, I've been doing
this for nearly 2 years, but nothing on this sort of scale, and I'm feeling
a bit overwhelmed, and I really don't want to screw this up, so all
suggestions are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff DeLoach
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