Comparison! (fwd)

MegaZone (megazone@livingston.com)
Mon, 16 Sep 1996 21:10:07 -0700 (PDT)

Once upon a time Network Admin shaped the electrons to say...
>You have been very generous in posting a comparison between the PM3 and
>the Ascend MAX 4002 and the Annex RA6300. Can we be a little greedy and
>ask you to post a comparison between the PM3 and the Cisco AS5200
>(especially on the difference in the modem technology between the two)
>Thanx :-)

I can't seem to get at pricing there for the unit. But it seems to be
roughoy equivalent in overall useful features - of course it runs the
most bloated comm server OS available - IOS. The major difference is that
it seems to take the same path the RA6300 does - uses analog Microcomm
modems instead of digital modems.

One of our engineers created this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is our best approximation of the transition that Cisco has gone
through to create the AS5200. As you can see the architecture has not really
changed, it has just been repackaged. And of course in the AS5200 you are
still left with the digital to analog conversion and a possible bottleneck
at the async port. The diagram at the bottom shows the PM-3 architecture
in contrast.

Cisco Phase 1:

25XX plus external modems

+-----------------------------------+
| Cisco 25XX |
+-------+ | +------+ +----------------+ |
-- analog--| Modem |--- async ----| UART |-----| Routing Engine | |
+-------+ | +------+ +----------------+ |
| |
+-----------------------------------+

Cisco Phase 2:

AS5100

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Robotics DWAN Hub |
| |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| | Cisco 25XX on a card | |
| +-------+ | +------+ +----------------+ | |
-- T1 -----| Modem |--- async ----| UART |-----| Routing Engine | | |
| +-------+ | +------+ +----------------+ | |
| | | |
| +-----------------------------------+ |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Cisco Phase 3:

AS5200

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AS5200 Chassis |
| |
| +----------------------+
| +------------+ +----------+ | |
| | Digital | | Microcom | | +------+ +---------+|
- PRI ---| to |--analog--| Modem |--async ---| UART |--| Routing ||
| | Analog | | | | +------+ +---------+|
| | Conversion | +----------+ | |
| +------------+ +----------------------+
| |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

******************************************************************************
Livingston PM-3 Architecture

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PM-3 Chassis |
| |
| +-------+ |
|+---------+ +--------+ | High | +-----------------+ |
|| Digital | | Digital|---| Speed |---| Routing | |
- PRI --| Switch |--digital--| Modem |---| Back |---| Engine | |
|+---------+ +--------+ | Plane | +-----------------+ |
| +-------+ |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

******************************************************************************

-MZ

--
Livingston Enterprises - Chair, Department of Interstitial Affairs
Phone: 800-458-9966 510-426-0770 FAX: 510-426-8951 megazone@livingston.com
For support requests: support@livingston.com  <http://www.livingston.com/> 
Snail mail: 6920 Koll Center Parkway  #220, Pleasanton, CA 94566
See me in person: Internet Expo, Boston, MA, October 16-17, Booth 422 ;-)