<will@loopfree.net> 12/22/05 12:35:36 PM >>>
I'm curious to find out if there is a device that would allow a
single
DS3 to terminate on two different routers, and switch from the
primary
to the backup router if the primary were to fail. I've seen this
for
T1 circuits but I can't find anything for DS3.
I'd bet you could make something workable with a DPDT coaxial relay,
driving it from alarm contacts or a relay output of whatever
monitoring system you might already have. The tricky part would
probably be appropriately defining "failure" in order to get it to
automatically switch at the right time without causing more problems
than you started with.
I found what I was looking for, sort of:
http://www.dataprobe.com/switch/ab_net.html
They have a box that is basically an A/B switch. The failover is not
automatic (they have an automatic version for T1) but it is controllable
via SNMP/Web/Telnet, and it can also has a feature called Auto-Ping
which will cause the switch to trip if the pings fail. However, this box
does not detect if the primary CPE has failed, which is what I was
hoping to get. However, this is still better than nothing and the price
is only $775.
John