10 Gb backbone question

drew2000 · January 2010

Hey All,
When someone says they are setting up a 10 gigabit backbone using Cisco gear, are they using 10 x 1 Gb copper lines in an etherchannel? (with 10 ports?) Is it that simple, or is there more special configuration needed?

Or is it fiber? If it is fiber, can you run 10Gb over a single pair of strands?

Thanks,
Drew

tiersten · January 2010

There are 10GE cards for Cisco gear and yes, you can run it over fiber if you've got the necessary type.

astorrs · January 2010

drew2000 wrote: »

Hey All,
When someone says they are setting up a 10 gigabit backbone using Cisco gear, are they using 10 x 1 Gb copper lines in an etherchannel? (with 10 ports?) Is it that simple, or is there more special configuration needed?

Or is it fiber? If it is fiber, can you run 10Gb over a single pair of strands?

Fiber and/or copper 10 Gbps NICs and switch ports have been available for a while at the LAN edge (for many many years in the core). I deployed ~80 x Broadcom 10G NICs on ESX servers as part of an VMware project last fall (along with Cisco Nexus 5020 switches).

Forsaken_GA · January 2010

It all depends on what device is terminating the connection. If it's a 6500 for example, chances are pretty good that 10 gig circuit is being delivered over single mode fiber to a xenpak in a line card.

I suppose you could run 10 1 gig ports in an etherchannel, but that would be a bad idea. Router ports are expensive.

drew2000 · January 2010

Thanks for the info guys. The person I was talking to may have misused "backbone." The way he was talking about it, I can't see why he would be running 10Gb to a router. His ISP line can't be that fast, this is a small business with 70 devices, not a big data center.

I was thinking he really meant 10Gb from the core switch to the access switches.

I guess the 10Gb single interface makes sense.

Thanks
Drew

Forsaken_GA · January 2010

In a setting that small, he was likely talking about the backplane of the core router, that's about the only thing that makes sense in the context of a network that size. It's hard to say for sure without knowing the topology involved.

drew2000 · January 2010

Thanks - and by backplane, we're just talking about the internal packet flow within the L3 switch / router, right?

So the 10Gb flow is within one routing device, not BETWEEN a core device and an edge device?

*edit* He also called a server room with 4 racks a "data center", so clearly I am dealing with some mixed lingo.

Thanks,
Andrew

10 Gb backbone question

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