Routing

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to reach out to folks in the community and discuss something that I can't really seem to get a straight answer on.

Aside from the major difference in prices, what are the limitations/advantages of the PTX and MX 10K router series?

My company is considering using the PTX as a border router and I'm getting conflicting information about whether the PTX could really serve in that capacity. Some say it can and others are saying that it's not the best choice.

I personally believe the MX is the way to go, but you can't deny that there is a MAJOR price difference.

Anyone had any experiences that they'd like to share or comments that could be helpful?

Thanks

Hey Chuck,

In my experience the differences are mainly in features and scale so it very much depends on which features you'd want to use and what type of route scale you want to use.

I dont have any numbers ready off the top of my head, but as far as I know the MX can handle a good amount more routes in RIB/FIB (depending on your license of course), while the PTX has a more limited (but still well above the current DFZ).

Additionally there are some feature limitations on PTX compared to MX. One such limitation is in the ACLs, where it can't do ACLs with "flexible match mask" (aka byte matching, as in matching for specified bits in the header of the packet) for example. It also has some limitations in specific features for EVPN-VXLAN for example (and iirc also things like subscriber management etc).

It's probably best to look at things with your Juniper sales rep though to see what features you are using in your network and whether the PTX would be a good match for it. I can say from personal experience that a PTX can definitely serve well as a border router, but again it very much depends on what type of features you utilize in your usecase.

Essentially "border router" can mean something entirely different from one network to the next, so unless you compare with a closely similar network you might be talking about entirely different experiences when people say you can or can't use it :)

Regards,

-Mark