MPLS Network bandwidth question

crrussell3

I have a question concerning MPLS bandwidth design. I started a new job a few weeks ago for an Architectural firm, so we do WAFS replication with dwg files using Globalscape WAFS (basically DFS with File Locking). So bandwidth is very precious to us. We are working on upgrading our mpls, and am not sure what we are going to is correct.

Our vendor is telling us the following:

Old MPLS
Main Site: 10mb
Site 1: 5mb
Site 2: 5mb
Site 3: 3mb
Site 4: 3mb
Site 5: 1.5mb

New MPLS
Main Site: 100mb
Site 1: 20mb
Site 2: 20mb
Site 3: 10mb
Site 4: 10mb
Site 5: 10mb
Site 6: 10mb (New site opening up soon)
Site 7: 10mb (Should open up within a year)
Site 8: 10mb (Should open up within a year)

Basically, as you can see, they are proposing a 1:1 ratio of remote site bandwidth to our main hub site. Is this a correct design? To me it seems to be way overkill. I am if you are saturating all links at the same time to require a 1:1 ratio hub/remote, then there are things going on that shouldn't be going on. I say this as with our current bandwidth, we don't saturate more than 50% at the hub site normally with WAFS/Email/Internet/FTP. I can see our main hub going to 30-40mb, and remote sites 10mb. Maybe our other two larger sites can go to 20mb, but even then I am not sure.

*Clarification: Our MPLS is a Mesh, but our replication is hub and spoke.

GAngel

I know when we were quoted for ours 1:1 was the accepted principle or you risk bottlenecks if everyone was trying to move data at the same time. Main site i'm assuming you mean the link into the data centre?

There is no right answer though as each network will be different. You should be able to view your bw logs at each site to see what your avg and peaks are and adjust accordingly. They should also be able to break this down for you as you're already on the MPLS. QoS can have a heavy influence on how much bw is needed as well.

networker050184

As GAangel stated, it all depends. If you know you don't need that much bandwidth then you probably don't. Most companies that I have seen provisioned go for a non over subscribed model at their 'main site' DC or whatever as you have listed.

crrussell3

Thanks for the replies so far. I understand its not a one size fits all sort of equation, but just wanted to make sure that from the get go they just weren't trying to make bank.

Based on the logs I have ran, most of our sites could do with doubling the bandwidth as this will help to speed up our WAFS replication. I understand the risk of doing an oversubscribed model at the main datacenter, just don't know if adding 10x bandwidth is the right way to go.

Granted, we are in the final stages of a Cisco Jabber and Webex rollout that will only add to our bandwidth as screen sharing and Webex meetings will be used by remote teams to help coordinate.

networker050184

You should speak to the sales reps. Pricing might not be much different for a lower level of service. Some places sell in a 10, 20, 50, 100 model assuming you are on metered ethernet circuits.

crrussell3

We are looking into the price differences to see if it would even make sense to drop down if there isn't much difference in cost.