North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Yankee Group declares core routing obsolete (was Re: AnybodyusingGBICs?)
Funny I thought a "switch" was a multiport bridge... uses the MAC headers to flood. ahh makes me long for the days of Kalpana. Scott C. McGrath On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Stephen Sprunk wrote: > > Thus spake "Daniel Golding" <[email protected]> > > Hmm. Don't you just love it when folks say things like "Layer 3 Switches > are > > better than routers". Its very illuminating as to clue level. > > > > I suppose what they were trying to say, is that products that were > designed > > as switches, but are now running routing code, are superior to products > that > > were designed as routers, and are running routing code. Of course, this is > > demonstrably false. > > > > "Layer 3 Switch" is like "Tier 1 ISP" - meaningless marketing drivel, > > divorced from any previous technical meaning. > > I've always stated that "switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast". Thus a > "L2 switch" is a "fast bridge" and a "L3 switch" is a "fast router". In > this light, the Yankee Group is just now catching on to something we all > knew a decade ago -- slow (i.e. software) routers are dead. > > There's a more interesting level to the discussion if you look at what > carriers are interested in for their backbone hardware today; while I'm > obviously biased based on my employer, I've seen a lot more emphasis on > $20k-per-10GE-port "L3 switches" than $200k-per-10GE-port "core routers" in > the current economic climate. > > S > > Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein > CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the > K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking >
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