Peter, That's really helpful - thanks!
I like the sound of the 6850 and a port-to-port layout - it's similar to the way we're used to dealing with Openreach EADs. The only battle then is to get them to run a 24 core fibre patch panel from their ODFs into each of our access racks! VLAN'ing a 10gig port is a good idea, but our access stack is based on Cisco ME 3600 switches only have two SFP+ ports, so we can't really afford one just for a Virgin interconnect. I'll wave the clue stick at them and see what happens. Thanks again! C -- Charlie Boisseau Fluency Communications Ltd. e. [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> w. http://fluency.net.uk/ t. 0845 874 7000 Fluency Communications Ltd. is part of the Commsworld<http://www.commsworld.com/> Group. This Email and files transmitted with it are confidential and are intended for the sole use of the individual or organisation addressed. If you have received this Email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete it without using, copying, storing, forwarding or disclosing its contents to any other person While Fluency has endeavoured to ensure that any attachments do not contain viruses it will not be liable for any losses incurred by the recipient. Fluency Communications Ltd. Registered in Scotland. Company Number: SC390685. Registered Office Address: 45 Peffer Place, Edinburgh, EH16 4BB On 12 Aug 2013, at 18:51, Peter Knapp <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Charlie. Hi. The baby Alcatels are a PITA to put it mildly – when they first started using them they would only provision one uplink so we’ve got loads with no more than 10 x 100meg ccts on. They do do a side by side shelf so you can get 2 into 1U if you weren’t aware. However on a brighter note, point them at 6850s – these are 24 port gig affairs, so you get 11 x gig uplinks to them and 11 circuits to you, in a port to port configuration (with a mountain of wasted Metnet ports and DC fibre of course). They will also vlan on them (as they will on the smaller ones with gig ports) so you can “discuss” how much commit on an uplink you are happy with. We usually cap at 5-600meg per uplink with 100 on gig type customers and even with upgrades in the last couple of years have only had to move a couple to new uplinks. They (VM) will also do 10gig and vlanned, which they still stick via an Alcatel and present a single SFP+ port to you. The reason for the Alcatel is at E2E testing time (they still insist on it) they put a gig port into the vlan they are testing at your core end and perform a full E2e). We’ve gradually moved to 10gig handoffs as port to port presentation in TH and such is a pain in the butt – although in our own DC use a mix of port and vlan handoff. Hope that helps, and a serious clue stick is needed in their direction IMO.. Peter Knapp T: 0113 294 66 99 F: 0113 273 00 58 E: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> W: www.ccsleeds.co.uk<http://www.ccsleeds.co.uk/> Registered in England, # 350 7910 From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Charlie Boisseau Sent: 12 August 2013 18:38 To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [uknof] Virgin Demarc Boxes [Was: virgin media delivered leased line fibre service - their CPE and us, and expected speeds.] Sorry to change the subject a bit, but this thread has reminded me of something I thought I might ask: Some of our PoPs are filling up at an alarming rate with Virgin Alcatel demarc boxes that only have one or two ports used. This is mainly because we have a number of circuits that are on 1Gig bearers, and the Alcatel boxes only have two gigabit ports (one NNI and one UNI), so typically a 1G customer circuit will take up 1U of rackspace (nevermind a separate fibre cross connect to the Virgin ODF). Having said that, strangely we just had a new circuit installed into one of our PoPs that ended up terminating on a LightningEdge LE-311. At least that box has 4 gig ports - but it's an absolute monster compared to the Alcatel. The old Pandatel card+chassis based solution was a lot better suited to gigabit circuits, because you could get 15 or 16 cards in a 4U chassis (much like Openreach EADs), but unfortunately Virgin don't offer this anymore. We've suggested they give us a Transmode box, but I think they only deploy those for wavelength services, and wouldn't want to waste them on Ethernet circuits (despite the volume of circuits we give them). - Does anyone know of any other EDDs Virgin have been known to use that might have 10G uplink? - Does anyone take L2 services from Virgin on a VLAN based delivery? I know they do this, but I wonder if it's just going to have the same density issues? Any shared experiences here would be helpful in our 'guided suggestions' to our Virgin account manager! Thanks, C -- Charlie Boisseau Fluency Communications Ltd. e. [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> w. http://fluency.net.uk/ t. 0845 874 7000 Fluency Communications Ltd. is part of the Commsworld<http://www.commsworld.com/> Group. This Email and files transmitted with it are confidential and are intended for the sole use of the individual or organisation addressed. If you have received this Email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete it without using, copying, storing, forwarding or disclosing its contents to any other person While Fluency has endeavoured to ensure that any attachments do not contain viruses it will not be liable for any losses incurred by the recipient. Fluency Communications Ltd. Registered in Scotland. Company Number: SC390685. Registered Office Address: 45 Peffer Place, Edinburgh, EH16 4BB On 12 Aug 2013, at 10:12, Chris Russell <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Are they giving you a layer3 service? Odd they can't use the SPF port on the Cisco as that cpe has three gig interface on board. yes, just a regular business service They would always use an Alcatel box as the NTU currently, agreed there is some level of madness but it's the way they do things I believe for monitoring (?!). They moved to Alcatel a few years back and had some fun with learning how to commission, this was after 3-4 years of Lightning Edge. For MIA if they use BGP multihop they often put an ME3[4|6|8]00 switch in the way as well as the Alcatel, for lesser bandwidth's it's Alcatel + generally Cisco 2900 ish Cheers Chris website: www.knowledgeit.co.uk<http://www.knowledgeit.co.uk/> | blog: www.knowledgeit.co.uk/blog<http://www.knowledgeit.co.uk/blog> | twitter: @KnowledgeITUK Knowledge Limited, Company Registration: 1554385 Registered Office: New Century House, Crowther Road, Washington, Tyne & Wear. NE38 0AQ Leeds Office: Viscount Court, Leeds Road, Rothwell, Leeds. LS26 0GR Tel: 0845 142 0020. Fax: 0845 142 0021 E-Mail Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended to be received only by persons entitled to receive the confidential information it may contain. E-mail messages to clients of Knowledge IT may contain information that is confidential and legally privileged. 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