Virgin Media Leased Line MIA ONT/Router config

Has anyone here got any experience with how a Virgin Media Leased Line (MIA) is set up, topology wise?

We use our own switches and routers at present and we've just ordered a 200Mbit (1Gb bearer). Virgin state they provide an Alcatel (ONT I believe) and then a Cisco ME3400. Now, how is the connection to our own network provided at this point?

Basically can we make teh Cisco effectively pass through (bridge) everything to our existing router and have that handle everything, or do we have to start using the Cisco router as our main one (including VLAN,s DHCP, port forward etc)

Also, is there an option to bypass the Cisco altogether and go straight from the ONT to our router via SFP/RJ45?

I've asked a few people at virgin Media but they don't seem to have the answer - strange!

I would have thought for a leased line circuit we can run our own network inc router?

Thanks

James

You can have public IPs delivered to your router via the Cisco. It will route but will have a public IP with a /30 or /31 subnet that routes to a /29, /30 or /31 subnet on its LAN side. Ask VMB.

You purchased MIA - Managed Internet Access. That explains why the switch.

Cheers. someone actually called me just now stating they can change the order to "semi-managed" which is the same "MIA" circuit but without the Cisco.

So ONT > our router. I presume the ONT will be the fibre termination with an RJ45 uplink to our router? Either that or SFP is fine for me.

Edited by deleted (Fri 18-May-18 16:18:16)

Not sure, won't be PON though so not an OLT in the manner Openreach provide it.

Will I imagine be a 10Gb fibre port out of the rear end if they are serious about providing a gigabit, else copper would be fine for '940Mb'.

To follow up on this, and for reference for anyone else asking, we had the VM leased line installed yesterday.

They provided just the Alcatel OS6250-8M (after we said we'd prefer not to use their provided Cisco router),

On the Alcatel is the Fibre termination and an uplink port (amongst a few unused ones). The uplink is in the form of an SFP slot and a gigabit RJ45 slot - you can use either to plug in to your own kit.

In terms of IP addressing, we ordered a block of 16 IP's.

They provided a single static WAN IP, Subnet and Gateway which you assign the as the WAN IP on your router, and then they provided a separate routed subnet (different range) for the /28 block. All traffic is routed through the single WAN IP/gateway but of course you can assign any of your IP's to be used for internal servers or the default IP for outbound.

All working well using a Mikrotik RB1100AHx2 router (no Cisco in sight)

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Thu 07-Jun-18 09:20:07)

One would imagine with a bit of tinkering that you could move the SFP from the Alcatel OS6250-8M for the fiber termination to the MikroTik and ditch the Alcatel altogether.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

One would imagine with a bit of tinkering that you could move the SFP from the Alcatel OS6250-8M for the fiber termination to the MikroTik and ditch the Alcatel altogether.

Maybe, but beware:

1. VM may be using the Alcatel for end-to-end link monitoring
2. The demarcation point of the service may be the Alcatel ethernet port; if so, then ripping out the Alcatel could make the service unsupported in the case of any probelms.

Yeah, they said they have to have that Alcatel in, as it serves as the demarcation and also for remote monitoring/troubleshooting.

That's just control freakery on the part of VM. What on earth they think they are going to do in terms of remote troubleshooting with that piece of junk 100Mbps switch is beyond me. If the link's down the link's down so they can do diddly squat. If the link's up then what, the links up. Meanwhile they are trashing the planet for no good reason. Personally I would make that level of control freakery illegal on environmental grounds. Oh and they are adding in a whole bunch of latency and buffer bloat to your connection for good measure.