At 10/12/2012 05:48 PM, Butch Evans wrote: >On Fri, 2012-10-12 at 10:52 -0400, Fred Goldstein wrote: > > There's a real market gap not quite being filled by our usual WISP > > vendors MT and UBNT. MT has a new CPE router with SFP support. This > > would be great for a regional CE fiber network. Let's say you have a > > building (say, Town Hall) with multiple tenants in it, each with a > > separate IP network (say, Town administration, Police, and School > > Admin). You'd want to be able to drop off one fiber with separate > > VLANs (virtual circuits) for each network, isolating the traffic from > > each other. An MEF switch is cheaper than a real Cisco router but a > > Routerboard is cheaper yet! And it can't route since there are > > multiple independent networks there, each with its own routers and > > firewalls. Nor is bridging appropriate (not isolating). So a > > Carrier Ethernet (MEF) switching option would fill that bill. Of > > course the same software would work with a wireless feed to a > > shared-tenant building, not needing the SFP version. > > > > I suspect the pieces are all there, just not the assembly > > instructions or tools to facilitate it. It involves setting up VLANs > > and queues. > >So, what you're saying is that you don't understand HOW to make the >network using MT as a tool? NOTE: This is not the same as "It can't do >________". It's all in the documentation. You just have to either >figure it out from what is there or ask for help from someone who has.
Yes, that's what I'm thinking. They never documented how to put those pieces together, though they might work. And "Switched Ethernet" would be a lovely tab on the side of Winbox and Webfig. I'm from the old school, where the definition of "bug" is "an undocumented feature", and where software was written to conform to the documentation, not the other way around. >It is there and can be done in a number of different ways (bridged OR >switched). Truth be told, I am amazed at what can be done in a small >box like the mikrotik devices. It is a swiss army knife. However, the >other side of this coin is that often, there is a BETTER tool for some >network needs. Much like a swiss army knife, while it is true that it >has a screwdriver built in, a REAL screwdriver is usually better suited. >At the same time, often, you only need the functionality provided by the >built-in screwdriver, but it takes a special knack to make it do the >job. The point being, that while it is certainly possible to make >RouterOS NOT be a router, why would you? If you want a switch, put in a >switch. If you want to save money, just realize that you are trading >something to get it. Find me an MEF switch for only 200% of the price of an equivalent Routerboard! (I suppose the new UBNT EdgeMAX will also fit that test.) Most of the <$1000 Ethernet switches are pure LAN bridges, not MEF 9/14. They use the same frame format but utterly different semantics. Plus a RouterOS box might allow a mix of the two, routing in one network and switching for everyone. >There is very little that you can't do with RouterOS in terms of vlan >behaviors, but there certainly ARE a few limitations. Your needs will >determine which is better. -- Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
