nanog mailing list archives

Re: Mikrotik RouterBoard and Ubiquiti Networks Routing and Switching Solutions


From: Eric Harrison <eric.harrison () cascadetech org>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 18:42:31 -0700

I ported one of our Juniper SRX configs to an EdgeRouter Lite and it was a
relatively painless experience. I benchmarked the end results and it would
do ~1gbps without breaking much of a sweat. Not bad at all for a <$100 box.

We keep some on the shelf, just in case of an emergency. At that price, why
not?

No large scale and/or long term deployments as of yet, which is where the
wheat is separated from the chaff.



On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 5:22 PM, Colton Conor <colton.conor () gmail com>
wrote:

I am interested to hear opinions on Mikrotik and Ubiquiti Networks routing
and switching products. I know both hardware providers are widely deployed
in WISP networks, but I am less interested in their wireless solutions and
more in their wired products.

I know most of their switches and routers are software based, but that
might not necessarily be a bad thing since everyone is going to SDN
anyways. Their products are 1/10th or less of the cost of
the equivalent Cisco/Juniper products.

How stable and feature rich are both of their platforms? How do both of
their command line interfaces compare to Cisco or Juniper? Is it easy to
train a Cisco tech how to use a Mikrotik or Ubiquiti Networks product?


*Ubiquiti Networks software is based on a version of Vyatta I believe. As
many of you know Vyatta was bought by Brocade. I have heard that Vyatta is
very Juniper OS like. *Ubiquiti just release a line of switches that have
an amazing price and seem to support wire speed switching. Their EdgeRouter
is supposedly faster than Mikrotiks solutions. They are also traded on the
stock market, and seem to be doing well as a company.
http://www.ubnt.com/products/

Mikrotik also seems to make routers and switches. I am not sure what their
software is based on, but it does support advanced features such as MPLS.
Not sure about their switches, but they seem to be dirt cheap! What is
their command line interface like? I couldn't find any financial
information on this company, but they seem to be located in Latvia?
http://routerboard.com/

Does anyone have any meaningful insight to both companies? Why haven't they
made a dent in the switching and router market with their amazing price
points? Am I missing something here?




-- 
Eric Harrison
Network Services
Cascade Technology Alliance / Multnomah Education Service District
office: 503-257-1554   cell: 971-998-6249   NOC 503-257-1510


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