A question about route speeds

[Trajik]

Hey guys.

We have a few remote sites that have got new data services installed. These are 6MB/s (megabyte) ethernet services.

We need to upgrade our routers so we can not only route our traffic at the appropriate speed, but have provision for QoS aswell.

Now i was looking at the Cisco product sheets at the switching speed of different router models. I don't want to get a router that won't forward the data quick enough.

Here is the Cisco performance matrix with speeds. http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/download...performance.pdf

Now i keep confusing myself. Are they showing the speeds in Megabyes per second or Megabits?

If it is Megabits, am i right in assuming that the lowest router i would opt for would be the 2811.

Or am i wrong and this is represented as megabytes? And in that case a 1701 would suffice.

(i know i have to take into account bi-directional and QoS stuff. but i just want to figure out what speeds these are being represented as so i can make a choice) (i also know i could get a layer 3 switch but management doesn't want to pay the costs)

Any help appreciated.

[VaKo]

I think those are listed in megabits, megabytes are mainly used when talking about storage while networking kit seems to always be listed in megabits. But, I'm no networking person so I would call the sales people if your still unsure.

[Trajik]

Ok cheers. Pretty sure that was the case. I was looking at some documentation on our network and it was in Megabytes, then i got confused haha.

Thanks.

[decepticon_eazy_e]

Ok cheers. Pretty sure that was the case. I was looking at some documentation on our network and it was in Megabytes, then i got confused haha.

Thanks.

This is megabits always, also the packets per second are 64kbytes in size. Packets vary in size so those numbers are achieved only in a controlled lab scenario. Those throughput numbers are for clear text packet forwarding with little to no processing.

When you add QoS or encryption, your throughput goes down significantly. This list will not give you a starting point to find the best router, but not the answer. You need to factor in your organization size and needs.

However, a 6mb pipe is a relatively small WAN link. Your biggest bottleneck is probably not the router on the WAN, it's the 3-4 users that watch youtube. It only takes a couple people to max out a 6meg pipe. QoS will help this, but your bandwidth utilization will not go down until you throttle down the specific user or service.

[h3%5kr3w]

crap.. guess I am a little l8 on this topic. (sry.. too much booze j/k)

Yes, it's in megabits, not bytes. 99% of the time when talking about networking equipt. your talking in bits *hence gigabit ethernet, etc*

A cisco router may or may not be overkill for your needs, if you would please share some of the topology *if possible* with us and we may assist you.

Also I agree 6mb pipe is not much, and if this is only for a few people, instead of a router, I would setup a small server to handle this stuff.

On the other hand though, you can get a cisco router such as the 1811 w/a T3 or fiber wan card and let it handle everything for you.. that is IF you know how to work a cisco router.

I'll be honest with you, if you do not know about how to work with IOS (cisco's proprietary networking operating system) you may want to check out some of the commands and see if you want to commit yourself before going this route.