Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!rpi!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uupsi!ccavax!bruce
From: bruce@ccavax.camb.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.sys.cisco
Subject: T1 MUXing within your cisco box
Message-ID: <32721.26f6c1b6@ccavax.camb.com>
Date: 19 Sep 90 04:54:14 GMT
Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
Lines: 54

It seems a bit silly to have everything so nicely multiplexed on
enet, and then go into a router or bridge box and have to come out
with a rats nest of v.35 cables to go into a T1 mux to get them all
multiplexed back onto a T1 to be piped to your favorite carrier who
will deliver the individual DS0s (or Nx56/64kb ckts) to remote
sites. 

Certainly this has been the prefered way to access an IXC, but now
the LECs are allowing T1s to be piped into them and broken down in
their DACS for delivery to diverse locations, and moreover they are
allowing direct customer control of THEIR DACs. I believe this sort
of feature is available in PacTel's ADN service and I know it is
available in NY Tel's NRS (Network Reconfiguration Service), and
shortly to be available MA from the other NYNEX child. 

Whether you need to reconfigure dynamically or not, the important
part here is that a T1 pipe you pack as you please gets unpacked and
delivered to different places for less cost than having that many
seperate DDS II ckts. Previously you only did this with the IXCs.
Now you can even access an IXC via the LEC's NRS DACS, while other
DS0s in the same T1 go to other IXCs and/or stay intralata. 

So back to our rats nest of v.35 connectors behind our LARGE cisco
box. Wouldn't it be nice if cisco would take a T1 in and let us tell
them that it is really 24 x 64kb, or 12 x 128kb, or 8 x 192kb, or
any random mix adding up to 24 x DS0. (obviously N x 56kb also has
to be catered to since LECs often insist on wasting 1/8th of the
bandwidth with older equipment widely deployed). 

Just imagine, 24 remote 56/64kb sites with one cable from your cisco
box, and NO T1/FT1 mux needed! 

Not possible you say! well, did anyone notice what CODEX did? 

They have A box for ~$5k (a bridge, not a router) that takes either
of two different 3 1/2" firmware stiffies. The first flavor stiffy
is <$1k, and only enables the 56/64kb port. This makes this box work
for the typical end node branch office. 

BUT, the very same box, when loaded with the OTHER stiffy (~$5k...)
becomes a nifty 24 way central site bridge. This s/w enables the T1
connector on the rear, and you simply define how many DS0s are to be
combined into each ckt! If you only want 56/64kb each, you support 24
remote bridges. Note well that CODEX only changed S/W, not H/W.

And maybe a 3rd (unnanounced) stiffy is labeled ISDN and does 23
remotes on the 23B + D of an ISDN PRI. 

If CODEX can do it, cisco certainly can too. Anyone that thinks this
is a good idea should so indicate to cisco. 

If cisco has announced plans in this direction, my apologies for 
having missed them, otherwise this posting is my vote for what I 
expect many of us would love to see.