Open-Source Router to Take on Cisco?

ickypick writes to tell us that CNN is running an article about the emergence of an OpenSource Router product, currently in Beta, that targets mid-size enterprise customers for about one-fifth the cost of current enterprise networking giants' hardware. From the article: "The machine runs on two Intel chips, but far more noteworthy is its software, known as XORP, or extensible open router platform. The versatile open-source application can direct data traffic for a giant corporation as easily as it can manage a home Wi-Fi network." The current release is available for download from Vyatta's web site."

Comments

I foresee a day

[kc0re]

Seems like everything is Open Source now. (No, I am not complaining, i am backing it)

We have Routers, Firewalls, IDS/IPS's, OS's, Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Presenting software. Hell. I would love to see an experiment where an entire corporate network was made, entirely of Open Source products (except for the hardware of course). From Routers to firewalls to .... You name it.

That would be an interesting, and totally free network.
Also very complicated

Re:I foresee a day

[Anonymous Coward]

--Seems like everything is Open Source now.--

everything but the women...

you have to pay oodles up front and, eventually, you find out the eula isn't what you where led to believe, the eula changes over time and, worst of all, the source is closed. and i mean *closed*.

its not the software

[nurb432]

For a router, its mostly in the hardware, if it can keep up with real-life data rates.

Software is secondary..

Re:its not the software

[Ogun]

Wrong.
Cisco IOS does nearly everything in software actually. Only on the big iron and catalyst based routers do you have dedicated hardware for packet forwarding. Try storming a cisco box with massive amounts of small UDP packets and see how well it copes. UDP is done in full software mode, you can't use CEF etc on UDP.
Might have changed in the two years I've been away from the networking world, but I don't really think so.
The slightly older 3600 series for example is just a normal PC in essence. RISC MIPS CPU, PCI for the network modules, flash for the OS.
What the do is distribute load instead. Same thing there, the older 7500 series has the CyBys architecture, where each line card is basically a separate router talking to each other over a backplane and a RSP to hold master databases and keep sync.

Yes, the Cisco 7600 has dedicated hardware for forwarding, but that is because it really is a catalyst 6500 switch under the hood.

Granted, many of the interface cards do a lot of processing for that media, framing etc, which keeps load of the main CPU. But what it comes down to is that IOS is quite efficient at doing what it does, which is forward packets.

If you want to learn more, I can strongly recommend the book "Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture" from Cisco Press, ISBN: 1578701813

More Trust

[BiggRanger]

This is good since I always wonder how many back doors are in Cisco routers for Law Inforcement purposes.

Re:More Trust

[causality]

Could you imagine the ramifications if a company got caught with a backdoor? They could kiss their ass good bye.

Never underestimate the power of Spin, especially when the general public has no interest in being informed about such complex subjects as network security (and lacks wisdom enough to decide that the only two reasonable courses of action are A. Learn about the subject or B. Shut the fuck up).

If the backdoors are for law enforcement purposes, why, then Cisco is simply being a Patriotic Corporate Citizen and Doing Their Part to help Stop Internet Crime etc etc. If this became a big controversy, all it would take is for one politician or one media outlet to talk even more about how wiretapping/remote logging ability is For Your Own Good and for the sole purpose of Stopping Al-Queda or whomever the convenient bogeyman of the day may be (because Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia). Rest assured that there will be such a device/tactic handy to drown out any kind of reasonable debate about the subject, should it ever become a serious issue.

The belief that a company which implements poor practices--such as undisclosed, intentional security hazards like backdoors--can "kiss their ass good bye" presupposes a market that consists entirely of informed, educated buyers who understand all security ramifications of their buying decisions (and such "features" that come with the package) and who always look after their own interests. Furthermore it assumes that they have enough sense to disregard any and all statements (on principle alone, as such claims have zero credibility) from any third parties who claim to know what is best for them, if only their particular set of restrictions were implemented. You will find that this last item is becoming lost upon us, especially in the USA.

I find this presupposition to be entirely unrealistic, and for that reason open-source alternatives can only possibly be a good thing, even if only because they give the established solutions such as those offered by Cisco a reason to avoid growing complacent.

FRISCO?

[nurb432]

Dont you mean FreeSCO?

and that runs on pc hardware, this appears to be on custom hardware that can actually do the job. Using pc hardware only works for a small business.. the bandwidth isnt there.

Re:Network outage?

[gardyloo]

So who do you call when the thing breaks?

      The A-Team.

I love open source software naming

[stinky wizzleteats]

Grep. Gimp. Kugar. Krita. Kexi. LaTex. Tcl. And now, the piece de resistance - xorp.

Why route when you can XORP!

Re:I love open source software naming

[DrSkwid]

says stinky_wizzleteats

Re:Naive

[causality]

To a point, I agree with you. I like hardware; it just works. Flash back to several years ago when WinModems were first introduced... Remember what a disaster they were, especially for anyone who didn't fit the anticipated M$-using profile? They were cheaper yes, but also lower quality, more proprietary, and OS-dependent when compared to hardware modems. It was not very long until anyone buying a modem had to shop around very carefully to avoid being stuck with this type of shit. Because I do not use any Microsoft software (but they make decent mice), this was my experience before broadband became available in my area.

I don't want to see this happen to routers. With the reliability/availability that is usually demanded of a router, and the fact that routers are typically only implemented by either a knowledgable user or a hired technician, I do not anticipate this will actually be a problem.

However, I have encountered your "oh well they usually learn" arrogance before. Hell, from time to time I might display this myself. You know, the idea that anyone who disagrees with you or who wants to use a different solution for their needs than what you would use could only be suffering from a lack of education and must not have any valid point. It's just a dismissal. Dismissal is a favorite tactic of otherwise logical, composed people who do not care to truly examine a particular issue and are not honest about this unwillingness upfront.

The main question your post raises for me is that there is an unstated assumption there that Cisco is absolutely dominating this market (which I do not dispute) and is therefore THE sensible choice (this is the part I find questionable). Support contracts, features, performance, blah blah blah... To me these are not the central issue because you can get your desired balance of these by shopping around. So, just explain this one thing to me - how is a majority Cisco marketshare good for anyone other than Cisco?

FYI, I agree that software routers cannot match the raw performance of dedicated specialty hardware, but I also agree that fire is hot and liquid water is wet. I get the impression that neither Xorp nor any other software router is going to be marketed to Fortune 100 companies in an attempt to directly compete with Cisco, but rather is intended for small to medium sized networks. How many mom-n-pop setups and local businesses ever turn into multimillion dollar enterprises? For this reason I do not consider the "they all migrate one day" statement to be the showstopper that you seem to believe it is.