Adtran NetVanta Routers and Switches vs. Cisco 500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 500)

Adtran NetVanta series switches are a very desirable switch set at a reasonable price point with a large amount of configuration ability for both L2 and L3. They are best suited for medium to large institutions that are not Cisco Dependent. They work well for small businesses as well but may be too high of a price point and too large of a feature set needed for a SOHO type set up which may turn away customers in that range. The 1531/P series does offer a smaller switch with the option of PoE in the P model and gives a total of 12 individual ports between the 8 PoE ports, 2 non PoE ports, and 2 SFP ports capable of Gigabit or 2.5Gbps with Adtran's interconnect cable. This may be more suitable for a SOHO set up but again may offer more than many small businesses need and may seem daunting.

Incentivized

Well suited for10G aggregation at network edge. Small managed networks such as school districts or distributed enterprise campus. Not well suited to RPHY aggregation at network core — queuing in NCS540 results in jitter and poor RPHY performance. Allow port license purchases in smaller units. Better support for SLA performance monitoring capabilities would allow use as a box for 10G aggregation for Carrier Ethernet NNI handoff.

Incentivized

• In industrial environments, Adtran NetVanta switches are robust and have a very long lifetime.
• In office environments, Adtran NetVanta switches are low profile and easy to install.
• Adtran NetVanta switches have multiple options for mounting, racks or wall mount are equally simple and well implemented.

Incentivized

• Switching.
• Routing.
• Access.

Incentivized

• PoE can be a little slow to initiate as the switch communicates with the device to determine the proper power level.
• 1550 Series seem to come flashed with a non-standard Firmware initially that must be upgraded before any configuration can be done.
• USB Driver for 1550 Series USB Serial connection is a non-standard driver that must be downloaded from Adtran vs Windows Plug and Play.

Incentivized

• MPLS feature set on NCS520
• Full support for RFC2544, Y.1564 across the product line
• Greater clarity of the impact of smaller buffers on NCS540 when compared to other Qumran chipsets — some use cases like RPHY aggregation at network core are not a good fit.

Incentivized

We have used everything from Foundry/Brocade, to Cisco, to Extreme, and nothing lives as long and performs as well as NetVanta switches.

Incentivized

Cisco NCS is smaller and for us newer. Better cost with similar capabilities.

Incentivized

• High Performance and reliability have allowed for a 'set it and forget it' type installation, giving greater customer satisfaction.
• The price point of the switches, while higher than other models such as HP or Dell potentially, is in line with their reliability and functionality and comes in less than Cisco much of the time.
• Having a long time relationship with Adtran as a company has allowed us to quickly assist customers with their needs, saving everyone time and money.

Incentivized

• Relatively low cost access layer device.
• Very cost effective means of getting 10G interfaces.
• Some features available on other devices out of the box are more complex or absent on the NCS without licensing or assistance.

Incentivized