I haven't researched stand alone DS3 mux in a long time and was
wondering if anyone can recommend a DS3 Mux. I have used Adtran
before. (Long ago) The products back then worked fine on line level
but management interface was awful and if you threw too much SNMP at
it and the management interface locked up.
Are there anything better out there these days?
TIA,
-Jay
The adtran TA 3000 is a solid product.
We use Adtran MX2820s which have been pretty reliable. They are designed
for medium density, so I am not sure if they'll be applicable to your
situation. We pull and trap a fair amount of snmp from them with no
problems.
Jay Nakamura wrote:
We've used a lot of the Carrier Access Widebank28. They work, but you have to figure on the controller cards dying every roughly 5 years. I've lost track of how many times we've had to send a tech on a long drive to an unmanned POP to swap cards.
AFAICT, they're insufficiently cooled (ineffective heat sink / no active ventilation unless you spring for the front cover with built-in fans, which IMO should have been standard). The few Adtrans I've used have had issues with putting out too hot a signal for cisco MCT3 interfaces, requiring either an attenuator or long service loop. The orientation of the T1 cable connectors on the backs of the Widebank28 and Adtrans differ, making swapping one for the other post-deployment a royal PITA.
I can 2nd the recommendation for the MX2820 series. 9 DS3 mux per 2U
chassis w/ redundancy. Very nice product if you're needing to save space in
a rack.
mrt
I used to use Kentrox EZT3s for feeding customers in bulk to my 7513s. They don't have much in the way of management, but they Just Work(tm). Back then, it was mostly serial based, but I think theres more current versions that have ethernet management.
I've run into the same situations w/ the Widebanks. Controllers like to die
in the middle of the night. I also ran into a situation where a tech went
to replace a Widebank w/ an Adtran and jammed the Amphenol connectors onto
the Adtran the wrong way. That was an interesting night...
My supply of DS3 attenuators have dwindled thanks to the MCT3 issue, too.
We've switched away from the CAC Widebank28s for the denser, cooler Adtran MX2820s. Our reasons were for the exact issues explained below.