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Conference irocz::common_brouters

Title:	Digital Brouters Conference
Notice:	New common-code brouter family: RouteAbout, DECswitch 900
Moderator:	MARVIN::HARTLL

Created:	Mon Jul 17 1995
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	929
Total number of notes:	3736

789.0. "Simple router recommendation??" by LIE495::CITRON (Marty - NY PSC Network Consultant) Fri Mar 07 1997 13:34

    I am trying to determine which router to recommend to my customer.
    From the technical side, I need a router to support frame relay and
    TCP/IP.
    
    While I am unsure of the implications, I have heard that RA does not
    provide a reliable datalink.
    
    Do I care about this in a frame relay environment?  What will I loose?
    
    My alternative is to use DB90's or DB90's and DECNIS.
    
    Looking for the cleaner way as my customer is not very technical.
    
    Also, there is an option to use leased lines and bridging over 56Kbps
    lines.
    In this case, is there a router preference to RA or DB90's?
    
    
    thanks
    Marty

T.R Title User Personal
Name Date Lines

789.1 MARVIN::CLEVELAND Mon Mar 10 1997 09:06 19

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
789.1		MARVIN::CLEVELAND		`Mon Mar 10 1997 09:06`	19
	> While I am unsure of the implications, I have heard that RA does not > provide a reliable datalink. If you mean that it does not use a sequenced protocol like DEC HDLC then I guess you are correct. However Frame Relay is supposed to be 'unreliable' in that the network may discard your packets in a variety of situations. Some vendors may implement a second datalink protocol to run on top of FR (eg, PPP over FR, as done by DECnis and RouteAbout). I haven't heard of anyone running a sequenced datalink over FR but perhaps cisco (and db90) does in pt-pt mode? > Also, there is an option to use leased lines and bridging over 56Kbps > lines. > In this case, is there a router preference to RA or DB90's? I would think either are viable but the RA will probably be cheaper than the DB90 if all you want is Bridging and IP.

    
>    While I am unsure of the implications, I have heard that RA does not
>    provide a reliable datalink.
    
    If you mean that it does not use a sequenced protocol like DEC HDLC
    then I guess you are correct.  However Frame Relay is supposed to be
    'unreliable' in that the network may discard your packets in a variety
    of situations.  Some vendors may implement a second datalink protocol
    to run on top of FR (eg, PPP over FR, as done by DECnis and
    RouteAbout).  I haven't heard of anyone running a sequenced datalink
    over FR but perhaps cisco (and db90) does in pt-pt mode?
    
>   Also, there is an option to use leased lines and bridging over 56Kbps
>   lines.
>   In this case, is there a router preference to RA or DB90's?
    
    I would think either are viable but the RA will probably be cheaper
    than the DB90 if all you want is Bridging and IP.