Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Foundry BigIron RX vs MLX
As you likely know, the Foundry Networks NetIron MLX is an awesome, powerful router platform. Also from Foundry, but more towards a switch platform (”Layer 3 Backbone Switch” according to Foundry) is the BigIron RX series. Which, in addition to being a blazing fast feature rich L2 switch, has a surprising array of layer 3 protocol support. It is also more widely available on the secondary market, so is much less expensive than the MLX. MLX is needed mainly when you need:
(1) MPLS features
(2) Virtual Routing
(3) Outbound ACL
(4) Very large adjacency tables (more than 8k)
(5) More than 31 link aggregation groups
But otherwise, the BigIron RX can usually fit the bill. The RX can also take a 2GB memory upgrade, which is nice. And the RX can do quite a bit of Layer 3:
Layer 3 Feature Set
Foundry’s IronWare software suite includes scalable EGP and IGP routing protocols.
BGPv4—Scalable to 4 million routes, 256 peers and 14,000 attributes with 2GB (MR2) management module
OSPF—Scalable to over 400,000 routes
IS-IS—Support for Level 1 and Level 2, includes 25,000 routes and 512 adjacencies
Foundry Direct Routing (FDR)—The forwarding information base (FIB) is downloaded to the hardware-based forwarding engine on each line module. This memory can be pre-populated with as many as 512,000 IP V4 and 64,000 IPV6 routes for wire-speed routing performance.
Policy-based Routing (PBR)—Support customizable routing policies using access control lists (ACLs). This feature can be used to balance network usage by controlling the network paths for different traffic flows.
Comprehensive multicast feature set—Provides hardware-based support for a number of multicast protocols including DVMRP, MSDP, PIM-SM (Sparse Mode) and PIM-DM (Dense Mode), allowing network managers to efficiently deploy next-generation multicast applications
VRRP and VRRPE (Enhanced VRRP)—Enables the BigIron RX to operate as a backup router to other network routers. In the event of a router failure, the BigIron RX will automatically and seamlessly perform the tasks of the failed router.
So, do consider the BigIron RX when considering the MLX, maybe it’s a good fit. And the cost will be much lower than MLX, especially if you buy refurbished (which we do stock, see below)
- BI-RX-4-AC BI RX-4 Chassis 1 MR, 2 SWF1, 1 PS and Fan assy $16,995 US LIST
- RX-BI-MR Management Module BigIron RX-Series $6,995
- RX-BI-MR2 Management Module with 2 GB memory for BigIron RX-Series $7,995
- RX-ACPWR-B-SYS RX-Series Chassis AC power supply for RX-4 $1,995
-
RX-BI2XG 2-port 10GbE XFP BigIron RX-Series $9,495
-
RX-BI24F 24-port 1-GE SFP BigIron RX-Series $8,995
-
RX-BI24C 24-port 10/100/1000Base-T, RJ45 BigIron RX-Series $7,995
-
RX-BI48T 48-port 10/100/1000Base-T, MRJ21 module for BigIron RX-Series $15,995
For pricing and availability Contact: Brian Stadmiller, Foundry Specialist
+ (415) 626-4231 x230
AIM: bstaginc