How to select core router - Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, ZTE, ALU, Ericsson ??

Ok. Let me confess. The entry is written after my boss asked me to develop an evaluation criteria for a new tender. It's kind of putting the tacit knowledge in to black & white terms/spec which I've not done for quite some time. After talking to some of my ex colleagues (within the company of course) and going through the product spec I drafted the spec.


I went through various phases before coming up with the final spec.


1Current utilization
Input: CACTI, NMS etc
Output: Find where to start and input to Item 2

2.Traffic Projections
Input: Item1, projections, trending and some scenario planning
Output: Define the required packet forwarding rates, Port matrix, scalability requirements

3.Service offerings
Input: Product Strategy plan, Industry predictions
Output: Define required services, features

4. Integration/Interoperability
Input: Network strategy, existing network features, node features
Output: Interoperability requirements

5. Standard HA features
Input: Industry best practices, Lessons learned
Output: HA requirements

6. Standard security features
Input: Industry best practices, Lessons learned
Output: Security requirements

7. Standard green features
Input: Industry best practices, Lessons learned
Output: Power, Footprint etc spec

In the end it looks like


* A router that can start at 20 Gbps and able to handle up to 100 Gbps packet forwarding;
* Supports cascading chassis
* Mixture of 1GE, 10GE and road map to 40GE/100GE
* MPLS, VPLS requirements
* Shall work with existing Cisco, Juniper boxes and features
* NSF, BFD, VRRP,  etc
* L2, L3 Access lists etc
* 6000watts limit, chassis size


It'd be great to hear from the rest and to know how do you guys come up with the specs?