Dedicated lines or frame-relay cloud?

[rkmorrow]

My company is in the process of redoing the entire networ infrastructure.
Right now we have hub and spoke topology with 1600 as hub, configured with 5 subinterfaces going into a frame-relay cloud. One T1 is going to Internet from hub router and fractional T1's going into hub router's sub-interfaces.
We are going to add 3 more lines and everyone will be upgraded to T1 lines.
There is a question of weather it would be better to use dedicated lines and one hub router with 8 serial interfaces, or continue with sub-interfaces into the cloud.
I am thinking about in the future using maybe voice over IP.
Does anyone have any ideas as to which would be the best way to go?
What about everyone being T1 now, bottleneck to Internet?
I set up the present network and also was concerned about how difficult it would be to configure the serial interfaces and get that all to work.
Any input would be appreciated.
Thank you,
RKMorrow
Ther

 

[BobSutan]

I'd stick with the Frame Relay. From my experience, one fat pipe is going to be cheaper than many narrow ones.

 

[jgercken]

Depends. How far are the lines? Are the sites provided for by a single Telco? Are they intra or inter latta?

The cost of a dedicated T-1 has come down a lot due to pressures by other technology (xdsl). An intra latta T-1 shouldn't cost more than $400/month. The biggest benefit to T-1's are that you can use a CSU/DSU to split out x number of channels as DS0's for a PBX tie line. No more long distance fees and no expensive VoIP.

Setting up serial lines is cake, especially with HDLC. With a T-1 you normally have 1 circuit per interface so subinterfaces aren't needed.

interface serial x
encapsulation hdlc
ip address x.x.x.x m.m.m.m
no shutdown

that's it, unless you want compression or encryption.
-Jeff
----------------------------------------
Wassabi Pop Tarts! Write Kellogs today!