Full analysis of enterprise-level router purchase methods

As a connected group, enterprises need to exchange a large amount of data every day. Routers play a central role in this process and are the main channel for data exchange, therefore, its quality directly affects the communication efficiency of enterprises, and its importance is self-evident.

　　

 

Some time ago, I introduced several aspects that should be paid attention to when purchasing household wireless devices. As an enterprise user, how can I select a proper Router Based on my own needs? Here, I will introduce several aspects that should be paid attention to when selecting an enterprise-level router, hoping to help you.

First of all, I think everyone will have a simple understanding of what they want to buy before they buy things. The saying goes, "Know yourself, know yourself, know yourself and know yourself" is a hundred battles. First, you need to understand the technical capabilities of the manufacturer, these capabilities include the capabilities of the product itself, such as performance, functions, and prices; overall solution capabilities, such as security, manageability, reliability, and stability; the scale, service capability, and subsequent development capability of the vendor will be of great benefit to users' future product upgrades and network maintenance services:

At present, in addition to the old foreign manufacturers, the router market of low-end and Middle-end Enterprises in China has emerged many domestic brands, such as Huawei, Shida, shenzhoudigital, and maipu.

Foreign manufacturers in the high-end enterprise router market have certain technical advantages, but Lenovo, Shida, and Huawei in China already have the technical capabilities to compete with foreign products.

Secondly, we all know that the most expensive is not necessarily the most suitable for ourselves. Therefore, before purchasing a product, we must clarify the enterprise's own needs, mainly in the following aspects:

Practical: use mature technologies that have been proven to be practical. This can meet the needs of current business management and adapt to 3 ~ Requirements for business development within five years;

Reliable: design detailed Fault Handling and emergency handling solutions to ensure the stability and reliability of system operation;

Standard: The network system is designed to comply with international and industrial standards, and adopts an open system (OSI) structure;

Advanced: the devices used should support VLAN division technology, HSRP (hot backup routing protocol) technology, OSPF (Shortest Path First) technology, and VPN routing protocol, ensures the transmission performance of the network and fast convergence of routes, suppresses broadcast storms in the LAN, and reduces data transmission latency;

Security: The system provides multi-level security measures to meet user identity authentication, access control, data integrity, and confidentiality transmission requirements;

Scalability: With the continuous development of business, the center switching system and routing system can be constantly upgraded and expanded to ensure the stable operation of the system;

Manageability: network devices support standard management protocols. network management software and devices can be used to effectively manage and maintain the entire network;

Flexibility: network devices can be used flexibly. You only need to modify the settings to complete the IOS upgrade for network devices. New features can be fully utilized.

After learning about the technical capabilities and needs of the manufacturer, let's talk about several keywords that should be paid attention to during the purchase:

Key words: Performance and redundancy Stability

The efficiency of a vro determines its performance and the data volume and application carried by the network. There are two router routing Methods: Software and Hardware forwarding. The Software generally uses centralized routing. Hardware forwarding can be divided into centralized and distributed hardware forwarding methods, which are representative of the new generation network. The hardware forwarding method can effectively improve data transmission latency and network efficiency. The software stability and hardware redundancy of routers must also be considered. A fully redundant router can greatly improve the reliability of equipment operation, and the stability of the software system can also ensure the development of user applications.

Keywords: Interface

Bandwidth, continuity, and compatibility must be taken into account for enterprise network construction. Interfaces of core routers must consider the types of interfaces that can be simultaneously supported by a device, for example, a variety of Copper Core Cables and optical fiber interfaces, such as Mbit/s/Gigabit Ethernet, ATM interfaces, and high-speed POS interfaces.

Keyword 3: Port quantity

When selecting a suitable vro, you must consider the number of routing ports. There are many choices on the market, from several ports to hundreds of ports, users must consider multiple aspects based on their actual needs and future needs. Generally, dozens of ports can meet enterprises' needs for small and medium-sized enterprises. What is really important is the selection of port numbers for large enterprises, generally, we need to make statistics based on the number of network segments, predict the future development of the enterprise network, and then select dozens to hundreds of ports, you can make reasonable choices as needed.

Key words: standard protocols supported by routers and their features

When selecting a vro, you must consider the various open standard protocols supported by the vro. The open standard protocol is a good prerequisite for device interconnection. The supported protocols indicate that the design is flexible and efficient. For example, check whether it supports the full multicast routing protocol, MPLS, and VRRP. In addition, some enterprises also consider whether the router supports IPX and AppleTalk routes while considering regular IP routing. Some device manufacturers develop several private protocols to improve routing efficiency. It is best for users to specify their own needs in their selection of these features, at the same time, we should also note that such technologies should be avoided in core technologies, because non-standard protocols indicate product incompatibility between different equipment manufacturers, it will paralyze users to a device manufacturer, and nonstandard protocols are often replaced by new open protocols.

Key words: determining the difficulty level of management methods

Vro management is particularly important. Currently, there are three mainstream configurations of routers. One is a silly router, which does not need to be configured. The main user group is home or SOHO. The other is a router with the simplest Web configuration interface, its main user group is low-end small and medium-sized enterprises. Because it is intended for ordinary non-professionals, its configuration cannot be too complicated; the third method is to use the terminal to connect to the vro port through a dedicated configuration line for direct configuration, because the configuration file of the newly purchased vro has no content yet, therefore, after you purchase a vro, you must first use this method for basic configuration. The user group of this vro is large enterprises and professional users. Therefore, it is much more complicated to set up than the low-end vro, in addition, all high-end routers now adopt a command-based configuration in English, which should be managed and configured by specially trained professionals.

Keyword 6: Security

Due to the prevalence of network hackers and viruses, the protection and low control capabilities of network devices are also an important factor in choosing vrouters. While using RADIUS/TACACS + and other authentication, the vro uses a large number of access control lists (ACLs) to shield and isolate the vro. When selecting a vro, you must pay attention to ACL control. If you use the CPU check method, the operation performance of the router will be reduced, and the hardware implementation method will not constitute an additional burden on the operation.

At the same time, vrouters of some manufacturers can currently provide methods to prevent hacker attacks, and provide devices with secure connection to SSH and secure replication (SCP) functions. enterprise users can choose between them.

In addition, user needs to consider aspects such as shape and size and traffic control.