Actually John, contrary to what was stated, AT&T has a really great bunch of pre-sales engineers who do give customers lots of time, and the time of day if they need it, to talk about VPN's. Not to mention lots of support on the backend if you are already a customer. We've been running 2547 VPN's since 1998 over Fr/ATM and since 2000 over our IP backbone. Customers using VOIP really like our VPN's because they have inherent full mesh topologies and built in QOS using CBFWQ/LLQ/WRED.
L2 VPN's are for carriers who don't have other choices, such as Sprint, which has IP globally, but not frame relay. They are able to provide a global VPN that way. They didn't really have a choice. Now, they have totally done an about face due to massive customer pressure and are implementing 2547 after saying for years that it wasn't necessary, sucks, etc. the industry choice appears to be 2547 though you can't forget the Qwest solution as it is popular with many customers. L2 is nice for end to end routing control also. But only if you NEED full mesh. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with good old fashioned FR and ATM pvc's. 2547 VPN's are different and require some thought, because you are essentially routing WITH your carrier instead of transparently to your carrier. Michelle Michelle Truman CCIE # 8098 Principal Technical Consultant AT&T Solutions Center mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Work: 651-998-0949 -----Original Message----- From: John Neiberger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 10:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: L2 vs L3 [7:73255] >You have a lot of options. I recommend Sprint first, then Level-3, >then GX. Unless you are already in bed with Qwest or AT&T, they >won't give you the time-of-day for support (and you are going to >need good support for an offering like this). In particular, I >recommend Sprint's PW option (UTI on Cisco GSR), and Level-3's >(3)Packet MPLS-VPN option (Martini L2VPN on Laurel Networks). > I just checked the Sprintbiz site and they seem to offer a network-based IP VPN and a CPE-based IP VPN. It appears to me that these are both L3 VPNs. It's hard to find much more than marketing materials on their site, though, and I'd love to read more details. Are those the Sprint services you were referring to? And what is the PW option you refer to? I've already read a little about the Level-3 MPLS-VPN and it sounded like a good option but we come back to the full-mesh issue. It would take over 5300 PVCs to create a full mesh with their L2 VPN. A full mesh isn't a requirement, but it is a very nice feature of the Qwest PRN service and given our network design and traffic flow, that is a great benefit. John Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=73293&t=73255 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
