Enterprises cut costs with open source routers

Open-source is everywhere -- operating systems, application software, development tools. So why not routers, too?

It's a question that Sam Noble, senior network system administrator for New Mexico Supreme Court's Judicial Information Division, pondered while looking for a way to connect courthouses statewide to a new centralized case management system. Noble sought a DSL router that would be affordable and customizable, but found that the ISP-supplied modem lacked remote monitoring of local link status. This was vital, in his opinion, so the division could monitor the status of the DSL connection at each of several layers lower than just the 'Can I pass traffic?' test that one is limited to using the ISP's modems, Noble explains.

Another alternative, adding ADSL cards to the legacy Cisco Systems' 2600 Series frame-relay routers used at some courthouses, provided the necessary visibility, but the elderly devices lacked enough power to support firewall performance. A third alternative, Juniper Networks' NetScreen SSG20 firewall/router with an ADSL option, "lacked many of the features we wanted, like full-featured command lines and unlimited tunnel interfaces," Noble says.

Frustrated, Noble decided to investigate yet another option: open-source routers. Aware of the open-source movement's impact on technologies ranging from server platforms to VoIP telephony, he decided that an open-source router ultimately could turn out to be a smart, flexible and cost-effective choice. Curious, he downloaded software from open-source router vendor Vyatta onto a laptop and ran some preliminary tests.

"I was especially interested in whether the administrative interfaces were complete and feature-full," Noble says.

Impressed by the initial results, Noble created a prototype site in Santa Fe to study performance, the Vyatta routers' ability to work with existing technologies and cost-effectiveness. "We needed somewhere to bring up a DSL connection for testing and to work out the best configuration without impacting our production network," he says.

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