Alcatel Unleashed

I'm new to the Alcatel world but I'm learning. This may be a stupid question but here goes. I have about 30 remote sites that will be connecting with our main HQ via T-1 bundles. At each of these sites will be a Cisco router (they'll be going away after I can afford the switches). Anyway I was told that I can create epipes between all these sites and the HQ but after I got to thinking about it, can I create the epipes from the field to one physical port on the HQ 7705 that connects to our main router or is it one physical port from the field to one physical port in the HQ?

Also some of these sites run different networks that need to be physically segregated at the site.

I'd just like to know if I'm going to need over 30 physical ethernet ports at our HQ because if that's the case I may need to upgrade to a SAR18 maybe.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

"can I create the epipes from the field to one physical port on the HQ 7705 that connects to our main router or is it one physical port from the field to one physical port in the HQ? "

hmmm,of course you can with sap vlan tag , as long as the main router can distinguish the vlan tag ( 1 sap vlan per site)
eg. port to main router is 1/1/1 with dot1Q encapsulation

for site 1 ,
configure service epipe 20 customer 1 create
sap 1/1/1:1
spoke-sdp 22:20 create
exit
no shut
exit

for site 2 ,
configure service epipe 20 customer 1 create
sap 1/1/1:2
spoke-sdp 22:20 create
exit
no shut
exit

Thanks for answering this. So I'm going to be directly connecting my HQ 7705 to a Cisco 3945. On the port on the 3945 it needs to recognize the vlan tags for the remote sites?

Where you have sap 1/1/1:1 I'm assuming the :1 is the vlan tag?

Sorry I'm such a noob. We can afford the equipment but not much in the way of training. I'm better with Cisco equipment but I'm enjoying the Alcatel gear and some of the options I have with it.

Thanks again for the help.

sap 1/1/1:1 => yah. . .that is VLAN with value tag = 1
You need vlan tag aware at port (1/1/1) to main router. . . but in sites, you may define with VLAN or without vlan. . .

Awesome. Thanks so much for the help. Now to pull some routers and try it in the lab.

Ok, so I'm going to be setting up some of these epipes hopefully this week to test, I'm just not super clear on the vlan tag. Does that have to be a vlan that is already on my LAN or is it a vlan tag that I create that is only seen on the 7705 side to ID the traffic from the remote site? I really should take some classes on this but my company is kinda cheap and there's not to much in the way of training here in Alaska.

So let's say I start creating an epipe from my farthest south site, would I give that a vlan tag of say 1 and then have that match on the 7705 in our HQ or would I use the vlan that it uses on the network say 192? Most of our remote sites don't have vlans actually created on any of our Cisco devices because each of our sites already has a router and that router talks to either the adjacent site router or our HQ router.

Sorry to keep bothering you.
Joe

would I give that a vlan tag of say 1 and then have that match on the 7705 in our HQ or would I use the vlan that it uses on the network say 192

it doesn't have to match between vlan at sites and HQ, eg. vlan at site is 1 , vlan at HQ is 192 . . it doesn't matter

Most of our remote sites don't have vlans actually created on any of our Cisco devices

also you may undefined a vlan at remote sites, but it necessary in HQ because your problem previously determines to minimize using port ( 1 port for many sites)
eg : at site there is no vlan , and at HQ is 192

Ok, so I'm trying to test this all out. I'm using a Cisco 3945 Router G0/0 connecting to an Alcatel 7705 port 1/2/6. Here is the config for the port on the Cisco router:

interface GigabitEthernet0/0
description Uplink to MPLS-GOB-ARRC 1/2/6
ip address 192.168.119.249 255.255.255.0
ip pim sparse-dense-mode
duplex auto
speed auto

Here is the config from the 7705 for the port and the epipe I'm trying to create:

port 1/2/6
description "Link to PTC-GOB-3945"
ethernet
encap-type dot1q
ssm
tx-dus
exit
exit
no shutdown
exit

epipe 2536000 customer 5 create
description "PTC-GOB-3945 Router to Telecom Test Router"
sap 1/2/6:1 create
exit
spoke-sdp 3:2536000 create
exit
no shutdown
exit

The other Cisco router is a 2811 and I'm using fast ethernet 0/0 connecting to the 7705 here in my office on port 1/2/6. I'm not remoted into the router but it's interfaces is configure exactly as the 3945. Here's the config for the port on the 7705 here in my office:

port 1/2/6
description "Link to Telecom Test Router"
ethernet
encap-type dot1q
ssm
tx-dus
exit
exit
no shutdown
exit

epipe 2536000 customer 5 create
description "Epipe Telecom Test Router to PTC-GOB-3945 Router"
sap 1/2/6:1 create
exit
spoke-sdp 1:2536000 create
exit
no shutdown
exit

Right now the Cisco router interfaces show they are up. The 7705's show that the epipes are up. The problem is that the routers do not talk to each other when plugged into the 7705's. I tried it with 2 Cisco routers here in my office and I can connect them together back to back and they work but once I put them on the 7705 they won't talk. I've tried changing the MTU's on the 7705's to match what the Cisco routers were defaulting to but still no luck.

BTW the 2 7705's are connecting directly with fiber, an SDP was created and shows as up. The MPLS path and LSP is created and shows as up.

I'm drawing a lot of blanks here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Joe

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