Some quick answers to a couple of things I know:
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
Jeff DeLoach
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 8:36 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: design question (long post)
Hello all,
I've recently been given the task of building my company's WAN from the
ground up,
CL: lucky you! this is great!
and have been going over design after design, and finally think
I've found a solution. I would be interested in some input from people on
this list, though, who have more experience w/ this sort of thing than I
do--I've been doing WAN stuff for nearly 2 years now, but nothing on this
scale...Here's the scenario:
We have nearly 200 sites that need to connect back to the central office, a
number that is constantly growing. These sites are scattered all over the
US--10 different states right now, with more to come as the year rolls on.
I need to provide all the sites with internet access, as well as allow the
staff here in the main office to communicate, both via email (and,
eventually, w/ video via Netmeeting or ICQ), and with Reachout to remotely
troubleshoot sites. Each site has a database that is between 10-50 Mb that
needs to be backed up at the home office once a week ; additionally, each
site also runs our proprietary software that we seem to constantly upgrade,
so we need to be able to send updates across the wire as well. Down the
road, the development team is looking at moving to an ASP-based model, which
would remove the need for each site to have an individual database or
software upgrade, but would really increase the amount of traffic on the WAN
links. Additionally, the designers are also looking at employing streaming
video to the desktop for the remote sites as well, so the bandwidth
requirements are rather large, and multicast needs to be taken into
consideration as well.
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.
CL: you can use ATM at the HQ site, and frame relay at each of the remotes.
MCI can take care of the frame to ATM connection. the configurations is more
complex, but there is no need for you to do any of the breakouts, nor to run
separate ATM and frame connections. One fat pipe in with multiple thing
PVC's on the other side. De aware that this is not simple ( so the tech
people where I work tell me. ) but it is something my company, at least,
sells with regularity.
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?
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?
CL: what routed protocols do you run? will you require bridging of some
apps? what kind of redundancy will you have? do you have a structure that
falls cleanly along the lines of core / distribution / access, so that
whatever routing protocol you choose can be structured along the lines of
your physical topology?
CL: with regards to BGP, I wonder if now that BGP is being talked about
widely, that we are becoming overly concerned with it. there might indeed be
applications for BGP in the network you describe, but the prime directive
remains in effect. What problem do you think BGP would solve? What are you
trying to do that would make BGP something to consider?
CL: your company is an AS, in the strict sense of the term. so is Joe's real
estate, with one office and ten employees. again. I wonder if we sometimes
get a little carried away in applying everything we know to every situation
we meet.
3. Where would you put a firewall in this design?
CL: where are your points of exposure?
4. Is the 6000 switch/router idea the best way to go here, or should I have
a pure router, like a 7000-series?
CL: again. what is the problem you are trying to solve? how much money do
you have to spend?
CL: have you drawn a conceptual diagram in terms of the Cisco methodology -
core, distribution, access, and laid out your design according to this
structure? would that help you make decisions?
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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