HP A5800 IRF is better than Cat3750-X Stackwise because of following reasons

A5800 IRF is better than Cat3750-X Stackwise because of following reasons

1)      Can be used in Access, Aggregation, Distribution, Core or Data Center Layer

A5800-IRF can be used in Access, Aggregation, Distribution or Data Center; Cat3750-X Stackwise can only be used in Access layer.

This is because of the fact that there are performance limitations on Cat3750-X which will prohibit one from any other usage besides access/campus layer.

Here are some key limitations of Cat3750-X

	Cat3750-X	A5800
Performance	160Gbps	280 Gbps
Total VLAN	1005 VLANs	4094 VLANS
Max # of MAC Entries	4K (Access Mode)	32K
Max # of Routing Entries	6K (Access Mode)	16K
Max # of GE Copper Ports	48	80
Max # of GE Fiber Ports	4	32
Max # of 10GE	2	8

           

In fact, as per Cisco switch positioning guide http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/index.html#N2549C4

Cat4948 is much better than Cat3750-X for aggregation/distribution/Core/DC usage, but it does not support Stacking. Hence you lose all the advantages of Stacking

2)      Merge two layers (access + aggregation/distribution) into one layer

With A5800-IRF you can merge two layers (access + aggregation/distribution/Core) into one layer; this is very difficult in Cat3750-X Stackwise because of Layer 3 functionality limitations

A5800-IRF provides all Layer 3 functionality which is needed in an aggregation/distribution/core layer. Some of the key functionalities which are missing in Cat3750-X Stackwise are

-          Rapid Convergence Via Bi-Directional Forwarding Detection (BFD) RFC 5880 – Not supported on Cat3750-X Stackwise

-          MPLS

-          Campus-to-Campus or DC-to-DC Extension Via VPLS

-          Layer 2 Segmentation via VPLS ; Cisco Stackwise uses Private-VLAN which does not scale beyond layer 2 domain and is proprietary

3)      Cable limitations

Cat3750-X Stackwise needs a special cable and this limits its deployment. A5800-IRF uses normal ports on the switch to connect to other members in the group. This provides flexibility in terms of cable distances and member-to-member bandwidth

	Cat3750-X Stackwise	A5800 IRF
Cable Type	Special Cable	Any GE/10GE Copper or Fiber cable will do
Max Cable Distance	150 Centimeters	Up to 70 Kms
Max Bandwidth between members	64 Gbps RX, 64 Gbps TX	Up to 80Gbps RX, 80 Gbps TX

4)      Licensing Costs

With Cat3750-X Stackwise you cannot mix and match a LAN-Base license with any other members in the stack. Thus one is either forced to have a dumb Layer-2 only Stack or have all members upgrade to at least IP-Base license. This adds to the cost significantly. More details on - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps6406/qa_c67-578933.html

With A5800-IRF there are no premium licenses; Base level license has all the functionality

5)      Stack Management

A5800-IRF is managed by a robust tool called Intelligent Management Center (IMC). Cisco Stackwise needs LAN Management System tool. There are several limitations with Cisco Stackwise Management

	Cisco LMS	HP Networking IMC
Ability to manage all devices from Same company	No ; Only LAN switches ; Need to purchase other tools	Yes ; All HP Networking Devices
Ability to manage devices from other vendors	No ; Only Cisco Switches	Yes ; Can manage 2000 different devices including Cisco, JNPR, FDRY etc
FCAPS (Fault, Configure, Accounting, Performance, Security) Compliant	No	Yes
Performance Monitoring	No Netflow on Cat3K	Yes

Reference Material

Cisco 3750-X Data Sheet: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps6406/data_sheet_c78-584733.html

HPN  A5800  Data Sheet: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-0731ENW.pdf