Well, we've been playing with the USR rack, with little luck sofar.
It seems the product hasn't matured much yet. They're flying over
USR technicians to look at the problems. It's so bad we havent even
been able to dial into the box yet.
>* If you use the USR PRI solution you need to buy the TC rack, the
>Dual PRI Card, the NETServer PRI Card, and the Quad Modem Card. It is
>a mix and match setup. Needless to say the physical size is MUCH
>larger than the PM-3. It isn't what I would consider suitable for a
>POP, it is really good only for a central site. Which you can also do
Come on. That is only an issue if you have a tiny bit of space.
I think the USR rack is ok on the size issue. I haven't seen the
PM3 yet (wish they'd let us have a test unit :)
>* Quote "10 PRI spans or 240 simultaneous users within a single
>chassis." <http://www.usr.com/business/30422.html> Now on the PDF it
>says "10 PRI spans, servicing up to 230 simlutaneous callers."
>Ok... but the illustration shows 18 slots on the rack. So, 1 for a
>dual PRI card, 1 for the NETServer PRI Card, one for the Network
>Management Card. That leaves 14 slots. The modem cards are 4 modems
>each, so that is 56 modems maximum. 8 more than you need - unless you
>are in Europe, then you need 60. (Actually, it isn't clear if that
>18th slot is a real slot, it is wider than the rest, maybe the power
>supply or something. Any one with USR experience have the answer?) So
>it looks like they are talking about an ISDN only solution with the
>230. If you want full modem population you basically fill a chassis -
>which means that you end up with more space used, more cards, more
>power draw, and more heat to get the same basic support as a PM-3 -
>without as many features. (And I strongly suspect more cost.)
They are building a 16 modem/isdn card. 16*14 is 224. Guess if they
somehow had 15 slots you'd have 240. We haven't actually seen the 16
modem card yet, but they say 'real soon now'. Gotta see it first :)
Their ISDN only solution is really compact though. If you just add in
PRI cards you can have several hundred ISDN lines. Not bad. If only
it worked :)
We're at the moment looking into several hybrid systems to replace most
of our 20+ pops with. The USR rack sofar hasn't impressed us yet.
Cisco 5200 is next. I hope the PM3 comes out before we have to make
a choice.
Cor