DSU/router/switch/traffic-shaper gizmo (maybe OT)

Brian lists at karas.net
Wed Jul 2 18:13:47 EDT 2003


On Wed, 2003-07-02 at 13:25, bscott at ntisys.com wrote:
>   We have a need to divide up an Internet feed among several tenants in a
> building.  The feed will come in on a T1 or similar.  Upstream provider
> gives us a CSU and a routable IP block.  So we need to plug into the CSU and
> be a router.  Each tenant will need to be on an isolated Ethernet.  We will
> need to do NAT for some (but not all) tenants.  We need to do traffic
> shaping/bandwidth limiting/whatever, so that no one tenant can hog the pipe.

We do this sort of MDU thing quite often at work (ISP).  IMO, bring the
line into a cisco router and be done with it.  I'd say 1600 series with
integrated T1 WIC, but you can do external DSU just as well if you like.

Bring the ethernet of the router into a linux box, where you can do
routing, NATing, simplistic traffic shaping, etc much easier.

In no way would I recommend you actually terminate the T1 into a PC of
any sort, either directly or via the outboard CSU.  You're just asking
for problems (IMO) when the line goes down (and of course it will go
down).  Having a purpose-built well supported, well documented device at
the other end (ie: Cheap cisco router) will pay off in spades when it's
time to trouble shoot/support.  We get 1601's all day long for about
$100, so there's really no cost factor here.

Personally, I would gladly do a linux box for my own use, but I'm not
sure I consider that a "professional" enough solution for a MDU/customer
prem device.  I'm not as worried about the linux aspect as I am about
the PC hardware aspect (size, ventilation, failures, power
outages/spikes, etc).






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