> > The ACX5000 series are Ethernet-only switches. > > They hold about 120,000 entries in FIB, and as of today despite all the > RAM, are only sold with support for 300,000 entries in RIB. > > The chipset is not Juniper in-house, though; so make sure all your > features work. >
The ACX series is more of a hybrid. They are probably more likened to Layer 2 routers than switches. They are primarily designed as Mobile backhaul devices where integration into existing IP MPLS infrastructure would be a cost saving and design advantage. You can see this with the other models that have the TDM (E1/T1) interfaces. Those models use SAToP and CESoPSN to move TDM based circuits over an MPLS network. It's all rather clever really. The Ethernet ports on those models as well as the ethernet only models are an extension of that. They provide layer 2 interfaces where you don't really require layer 3 services (such as ethernet based mobile backhaul). So they are a switch, yes, but more than that. They utilise MPLS L2VPN/L2Circuits to move ethernet over the MPLS infrastructure. Hence why I thought it could be an alternative to terminating the layer 3 at the edge. Hamish
