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Dialup Faceoff - The Cisco
AS5300 versus the 3Com Total Control 1000
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With
the explosion of VOIP, IPTV, and MOIP gateways, dialup gateway have
seemingly disappeared from the news scene. Market interest in
dialup-only gateways, however, has not, and international demand
remains strong. This article discusses two of these - the Cisco
AS5300 and 3Com Total Control 1000.
Although the Cisco AS5350 and AS5400
line, along with the Lucent APX and UTStar Multispan Gateways
provide quite dialup support in addition to voice and other media
services, the Cisco AS5300 and 3Com Total Control 1000 offer
unequalled value for V92/V90/V34 dial-only gateway solutions.
Indeed, the quality of dialup service is just as good in these
gateways as in their newer brothers, but typically at just ten or
even five percent of the cost.
So if you need a dialup-only gateway,
which should you choose?
The Cisco AS5300 is currently the
most popular dialup-only server. It has VOIP and dialup versions,
but each requires completely different hardware. Its popularity
stems from - well, being a Cisco after all, with the huge
availability of qualified technical support, and its IOS is familiar
to anyone who has worked with virtually any Cisco equipment. In
addition, connection quality statistics have always been good for
the AS5300, albeit not quite up to 3Com Total Control 1000 levels.
The AS5300 is highly modular, and can be configured with single or
dual AC or DC power supplies. Nowadays, 128MB DRAM is standard along
with 16MB flash. Cisco stopped AS5300 IOS development at 12.3.x, but
will continue providing bug fixes (currently at 12.3.18) at least
through the end of the year. Functionally, nearly nothing has
changed in the dialup source code for quite some time - this is true
for both the Cisco and 3Com.
The AS5300 has three bays. The
lowest bay is for a 4PRI or 8PRI card (E1 or T1), with an
optional block of four, white, oval fast serial ports at the
right-hand end. Those that do are distinguished with a '+' at the
end of the part number, so an AS53-4CT1= would be a 4T1 card without
the fast serial ports, while the AS53-4CT1+ would be one with the
fast serial ports. The serial ports are most commonly used to
backhaul gateway traffic directly to a router, avoiding clogging up
the ethernet network, and is most commonly used in this way in VOIP
provisioned units (when you get a VOIP-A unit you're getting a PRI
card with the fast serial ports). Above the lowest bay are two slots
for holding Mica carrier boards and modems. The maximum
configuration of an AS5300 is 8T1/192 ports or 8E1/240 ports. The
AS5300 is typically managed from the familiar command line
interface.
In comparison, the 3Com Total
Control provides space for 1 or 2 AC or DC power supplies (always
choose the 130amp type), 1 or 2 "Hiper Arc" router cards,
a "Hiper" network management card, and up to 14 modem/PRI
cards - so it scales up nicely to 420 dialup ports! Each of
these is made of two matching cards - a short interface "NIC"
side and a longer matching "NAC" card side with LEDs that
fit respectively into matching slots in the back and front of the
Total Control. Ownership of the Total Control has bounced around -
first offered by USR, then 3Com, then Commworks, and now UTStar.
Across all its owners, it has remained a virtual tank of a unit,
twice as tall and heavy as the AS5300, and at the same time with
exceptional call quality, primarily because the modems are built
with the technical excellence of the USR Courier modem
series.
(continued next column, right - below image)
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FALL SUPER SPECIAL
Cisco AS5400XM
CT3 648,
blazing 750mhz CPU, 10/100/1000 ethernet, loaded - $35,900.
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HAVE
EXCESS GEAR? We buy network equipment daily - call 216-896-9967 or email
us for a quote.
Notes:
All our equipment includes a 90
day or longer warranty. Payment terms include Visa/MC/Amex,
company check, cashier's check, PayPal, or wire transfer.
Many items include software licensing, but when not applicable any
software relicensing is the responsibility of the buyer.
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(continued from previous column, left)
Each
Total Control PRI card set has both modem cards and PRI interface.
This facilitates the scalability of the unit (it can be expanded 1
PRI at a time from 1 to 14) and the calls for
an individual PRI are taken by only that card's modems. While command line
management is possible, the Total Control is typically managed using
the GUI "Total Control Manager", which install on any
Windows PC.
Pricewise, you'll find the 3Com Total
Control is less expensive in the T1 version, while the two are about
equally priced with E1 configurations.
Think about your organization and
its needs before choosing, but at least relax with the knowledge
that both the TC1000 and AS5300 are are excellent choices as dialup
servers..
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(continued from previous column, right)
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Buying AS5850s with older types of cards is buying trouble, so
watch out!
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Bottom line? If your plans include
2 or more CT3 configured AS5400HPX or XMs - give the AS5850
serious consideration. Despite its larger size, it provides price
and performance that other gateways cannot match.
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Call
216-896-9967 or email sales@isptrader.com with questions or to
place an order
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The Cisco AS5850 - Blazing performance and
a surprisingly low price-per-port |
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Cisco AS5400 line has provided the quality and performance VOIP
benchmark for most of this decade, and is an excellent choice for
configurations of up to 16PRIs and (with the HPX and XM versions
up to a full DS3/CT3). Cisco's AS5850, despite using the same
fundamental voice and trunk hardware cards as the AS5400, has been
much less popular, in part due to its higher entry cost, its
larger size, and an unfortunate design problem with the first
generation carrier card that caused overheating. |
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Because a 1DS3 AS5850 is more expensive than an
equivalent, AS5400 HPX, buyers often decide in favor of the
AS5400. Several AS5400s later, they are still making the same
decision, but would have been better off both on price and
performance if they'd purchased an AS5850.
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Aside
from price and size considerations, up until 2004 the main
drawbacks to an AS5850 was a poorly designed carrier card
backplane which generated too much heat and led to a higher card
failure rate, and a relatively slow CPU card (the route switch
controller - RSC). While faster than that of the AS5400, the
original RSC was not really up to a fully loaded AS5850 - which
can handle nearly 3,000 voice channels.
All that is in the past. Cisco's
second generation carrier backplane is a model of low heat
generation, while the CPU on its enhanced route switch controller
(eRSC) eclipses the performance of all versions of the AS5400,
including the XM. One or two eRSCs can be installed in each
AS5850, and each eRSC has compact flash drives along with dual
10/100 and dual gigabit ethernet ports.
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Today, the AS5850 gateway provides better performance and a
lower price per port than the AS5400 XM.
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AS5850s
are typically provisioned with dual power supplies, 1 or 2 eRSC
cards (2 are required if the chassis is fully populated), and then
a choice of trunk cards and universal port (voice/data) cards).
Trunk card choices are a CT3/216 (with 1 CT3 card and 216
universal ports), 24 PRI (E1 or T1), and even an STM-1 (fairly
rare). The workhorse card is the 324UPC card - with 324 universal
voice/data ports. These cards are built using the same hardware as
the AS5400 and AS5350 gateways. So the CT3/216 card is actually 1
CT3 card and 2 108np cards (the same ones you'd find in an AS5400,
just without the metal cages) installed on a special backplane.
Cards can be installed in combination, so it is not uncommon to
find CT3 and 24T1 cards installed. A common max configuration is a
unit with 2 eRSC, 4 CT3/216 and 6 324UPC cards. But for providers
using only partially filled DS3 circuits, it is also possible to
install 5, 6, 7 or more CT3/216 port cards. Virtually any
combination of cards will work, they key is installing ones that
make sense given your network and application needs.
The
backplanes on your AS5850s cards and the CPU card are the most
critical elements. As noted above, an earlier (now EOL) version of
the backplane had overheating problems, while the older RSC simply
can't keep up with the demands of a VOIP unit. However, many of
these older cards remain on the market and are knowingly or
unknowingly sold (and certainly unknowingly bought).
(continued next column, bottom left)
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