WIC-2FE vs HWIC-4ESW

Random question here.

WIC-2FE (two routed FE ports) is pretty expensive, around $1000.
HWIC-4ESW (four switchports) isn't as bad, around $800 I think.

What are the disadvantages of buying a 4ESW and creating a separate VLAN for each interface? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing?

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tiersten

It depends on what you're doing with it as to whether using a HWIC-4ESW with VLANs will be okay.

The internal bus connection on a HWIC-4ESW is limited to 100Mbps. I've no idea what it is like on a HWIC-2FE but even if it is 100Mbps, you're still getting less oversubscription.

You can use a VLAN to give you a L3 interface on each of the HWIC-4ESW ports but there are limitations such as performance issues and the inability to do things like PPPoE termination and L3 QoS. These limitations are inherent to using a VLAN and not specific to the HWIC-4ESW.

mzinz

Thank you for the detailed reply. That answers all my questions

down77

tiersten wrote: »

It depends on what you're doing with it as to whether using a HWIC-4ESW with VLANs will be okay.

The internal bus connection on a HWIC-4ESW is limited to 100Mbps. I've no idea what it is like on a HWIC-2FE but even if it is 100Mbps, you're still getting less oversubscription.

You can use a VLAN to give you a L3 interface on each of the HWIC-4ESW ports but there are limitations such as performance issues and the inability to do things like PPPoE termination and L3 QoS. These limitations are inherent to using a VLAN and not specific to the HWIC-4ESW.

Great explanation... with one catch! The HWIC-2FE are L3 interfaces while the HWIC-4ESW are L2 only. You would need to create an "internal" router on a stick to properly allow the traffic to communicate between vlans for the HWIC-4ESW. I recently had to open a TAC case for a client on one of these bad boys and listened to the Support Engineer give me a dissertation on the module.

Cisco EtherSwitch 4- and 9-Port High-Speed WAN Interface Cards [Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers] - Cisco Systems

1- and 2-Port Fast Ethernet High-Speed WIC for Cisco Integrated Services Routers [Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers] - Cisco Systems

tiersten

down77 wrote: »

Great explanation... with one catch! The HWIC-2FE are L3 interfaces while the HWIC-4ESW are L2 only. You would need to create an "internal" router on a stick to properly allow the traffic to communicate between vlans for the HWIC-4ESW.

Yup. Thats why you'd be setting up the VLANs on the ESW.