Routers similar to MikroTik CCR1072-1G-8S+

[omw]

Hi all,

This is my first post on these forums. I'm in the market for a "prosumer"/mid-level business wired router. One that has a lot of processing power for stuff like VPNs and at least a few 10GbE SFP+ or 10GbE ethernet interfaces built-in.

During my research looking around the web for a router like this, I found the MikroTik CCR1072-1G-8S+ which seems really good. Its specs can be found on this page:

http://routerboard.com/CCR1072-1G-8Splus

My question is, do you know of any routers off the top of your head that are similar to this one? Maybe from Cisco instead of MikroTik?

Any advice or info would be much appreciated.

 

[System Error Message]

how much VPN bandwidth do you need?
per core each TILE CPU does 300-500Mb/s of hardware accelerated VPN but thats not taking into account other things. Its a test i did on LAN. I have the CCR1036 with 2 SFP+ and the highest CPU usage thing ive ever done with it is bandwidth tests and network monitoring.

Also mikrotik support isnt really much compared to other brands and is reliant on your vendor for support.

Cisco's equivalent consumes way more power for equivalent performance but you can do more with it. It really depends on what you're looking for. You need to provide more details like: Internet bandwidth, Internet medium (whether you use NAT, routing, MPLS, BGP), VPN bandwidth you need, other features you need from a router.

Have you also considered using x86 and installing a server OS or a router orientated OS? AES-NI on the CPU will accelerate AES encrypted VPN.

Even peplink has their equivalent too but it is not as fast for routing as the CCR but it is geared towards VPN.​

 

[Cloud200]

The equivalent in cisco purely from a hardware perspective is the ASR-1001x
Peplink has the BPL-2500
Theres also stuff from juniper, fortinet, etc.

Using a prebuilt x86 hardware the closest thing you will get commercially is the Netgate XG-1540
You can build something faster but it really depends on what you are doing.

 

[omw]

Thanks guys. I'm not sure on the exact VPN bandwidth I'm looking for, I just know that I want the router to have good overall VPN stability/compatibility built-in. I see lots of reviews of mid-level business routers (the kind I'm looking for) that mention bad VPN support. It seems like only the highest-end enterprise Cisco/Juniper routers have VPN support that "just works".

Google Fiber is going live in my area very soon. So I'll be switching from Comcrap to them. Therefore my Internet bandwidth I'm planning this router purchase around is at least several hundred Mbit/s down/up and up to 1Gbit/s down/up.

Another important feature I'm looking for is built-in 4G/3G cellular WAN failover, but from what I've read I could just plug a separate 4G/3G modem into the CCR1072-1G-8S+ and set up the WAN failover manually in the CCR1072-1G-8S+'s MikroTik RouterOS software.

 

[System Error Message]

The CCR1072 would be overkill for google fibre. Infact even the CCR1009 would be fast enough. I havent yet managed to benchmark The CCR's openVPN speed because i havent managed to get a config working yet so if someone could send me a config with the required files for both client and server i could implement it and test it.

Also mikrotik doesnt yet support openVPN in UDP mode, only TCP. The rest of the VPN capabilities do work on mikrotik but a business router you normally see doesnt compare to mikrotik in features. Mikrotik is a configurable router, other routers in the same class would be a full linux OS, pfsense, high end cisco/juniper. Most business routers are not configurable so their features are pretty much the same as a consume router where you just tick and fill up a few fields.

Sure the CCR series is very fast but i havent yet figured out how to do VPN other than pptp on it. The use of AES on the CCR would be hardware accelerated though if you needed speed.

Unless you need multiple 10G NAT and some network filtering you wont need to use the CCR1072. Im hoping openwrt will manage to get a version working to install on the CCR series so those many cores could be put to good use.

 

[omw]

The CCR1072 would be overkill for google fibre. Infact even the CCR1009 would be fast enough. I havent yet managed to benchmark The CCR's openVPN speed because i havent managed to get a config working yet so if someone could send me a config with the required files for both client and server i could implement it and test it.

Also mikrotik doesnt yet support openVPN in UDP mode, only TCP. The rest of the VPN capabilities do work on mikrotik but a business router you normally see doesnt compare to mikrotik in features. Mikrotik is a configurable router, other routers in the same class would be a full linux OS, pfsense, high end cisco/juniper. Most business routers are not configurable so their features are pretty much the same as a consume router where you just tick and fill up a few fields.

Sure the CCR series is very fast but i havent yet figured out how to do VPN other than pptp on it. The use of AES on the CCR would be hardware accelerated though if you needed speed.

Unless you need multiple 10G NAT and some network filtering you wont need to use the CCR1072. Im hoping openwrt will manage to get a version working to install on the CCR series so those many cores could be put to good use.

Well I'm not really getting the CCR1072 because of Google Fiber. Really the main feature that works for me is the 8 SFP+ ports because I want at least the core of my next home network (any switches, NAS/SAN's, etc.) to be all directly fiber connected, no ethernet. Those 8 SFP+ ports are obviously really helpful in that regard.

 

[Cloud200]

Well I'm not really getting the CCR1072 because of Google Fiber. Really the main feature that works for me is the 8 SFP+ ports because I want at least the core of my next home network (any switches, NAS/SAN's, etc.) to be all directly fiber connected, no ethernet. Those 8 SFP+ ports are obviously really helpful in that regard.

The CC1072 is not a switch. It is a router.
You would be just as well if not better served getting something like a Dell X4012 along with a CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+

 

[omw]

The CC1072 is not a switch. It is a router.
You would be just as well if not better served getting something like a Dell X4012 along with a CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+

Yeah I know it's a router..was just mentioning switches

 

[System Error Message]

it depends how much a switch with 8 10G ports will cost.
For example if a managed switch with 8 10G ports + the CCR1009 is cheaper than the CCR1072 than it would be a better option but if you want to be ready for 10G internet (through 1 port) than consider the cost difference between CCR1036 (with 2 SFP+) + managed switch with 8 10G ports and the CCR1072. The reason why i mentioned managed is because it would be the equivalent to the CCR1072 as bridging would manage the switching but is very configurable. When buying a managed switch consider what configurations you would do that could add load to it as well. Switches will not be wirespeed when burdened with filters and certain configs which is where the CCR comes in handy.

HP, Dell, cisco, juniper build good managed switches.