best device for core?

[Matthew Shuter]

What device would you reccommend for the core of our network?

here is the setup.
three fiber links, 1GB speed each
two with 5308s on the other end, acting as a L3 switch. 1 with a L2 cisco switch on the other end.
each site has its own 10.x network
two fiber links, 1GB speed each
connects 17 buildings via AT&T network, each bldg having 100MB links
each site has its own 10.x network
each site has either a 5308 acting as a L3 switch, or a Cisco 1760 router

our WAN is provided by AT&T, and doesn't "appear" in the path of the traffic. we have the two 1GB fiber links into our NOC from the ATT central office, and then 100MB links to each building from the ATT central office. they pass all traffic as is from one side to the other.

currently, I am using a 5308 chassis for this.
I have a vlan setup for each buildings wlan link. 3 are directly connected to the 5308 as I said, and then eight thru one WAN link from ATT, the other eight thru the second WAN link from ATT.
I have servers and computers on this switch as well, on the vlan that the switch operates as the center of my network. This also is the route to our internet access.

Shuld I look at replacing the 5300 with something else, say 8200 or 9300, or something else.. or stick with the 5300.
Currently, we are experiencing some issues with network slowness to the internet that I have not been able to determine the cause. All buildings expereince this problem, and it does not appear when I connect to the network on the public side, after our firewall (PIX 515E). We also have slowness to resources located on servers on this switch.

switch module config
two 24port 10/100 modules
one 4port mini-gbic module, with three 1GB fiber mini-gics
one 16port 10/100/1000 module, with all ports full and the two mini-gbic 1GB fiber gbics for the ATT wan
one 16port 10/100/1000 module, unpopulated.

thanks for any advice/suggestions.

Matt Shuter

[Matt Hobbs]

I would go with the 8200 if you can afford it, if not then I'd look at the 5400.

I think the 5300 should be able to handle what you're doing, but I would be careful with the 16 port 10/100/1000 module as it is not always wirespeed to the backplace. If you can connect your firewall to a 4 port 100/1000-T module or even a 24 Port 10/100 module you may see better performance.