Overall Satisfaction with Cisco 500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 500)
Two primary use cases: 1)10G port aggregation at the SP edge (RPHY aggregation, 10G E-UNI/NNI ports, access aggregation) where higher 10G port density is required than is possible on the ASR9001 routers we typically have installed in a CO location. 2) POP router for small POP expansions with unknown growth potential. Reasonable trade-off between port density and cost, especially in greenfield deployments with unknown market potential.
- Pay as you grow
- Operating system is consistent with other establish equipment (IOS-XR) — using primarily NCS540
- Support for 25G port speeds
- 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.
- Better price point for network edge
- Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
Higher 10G port density on NCS540
Availability of 25G/40G/100G provides greater flexibility
Good choice when full line rate is not needed
Good choice when full capabilities of ASR9000 are not required
Availability of 25G/40G/100G provides greater flexibility
Good choice when full line rate is not needed
Good choice when full capabilities of ASR9000 are not required