Juniper Networks has announced what it calls a “Converged Supercore” for service and content providers. The new suite of products and services provides an integrated, end-to-end packet transport solution for switching and transport.
There are three primary components involved, including a new chipset, new switching systems, and the new Junos operating system. The chipset is known as the Junos Express, which Juniper claims is the fastest and most scalable chipset in the industry. Next are the systems themselves, the new PTX Series, which Juniper describes as a Converged Supercore switch, built with native MPLS switching and optical integration. And then there’s the Junos operating system software, which provides a single network management system for managing both the optical and packet layers.
Peak Possibilities
Juniper says its latest effort targets the needs of today’s connected economy where about a billion smartphone devices are moving toward cloud-based and video apps — both of which drive massive growth and unpredictable traffic peaks.
“The new flexible approach to network architecture that Juniper is advancing accommodates the increasingly unpredictable traffic patterns, driven by new and emerging cloud computing, video and mobile applications,” confirmed Kempei Fukuda, senior director of the Global Network division at NTT Communications. “By creating a hybrid approach to the packet and optical networks, Juniper has introduced a cost-effective converged solution that dramatically reduces complexity while building in the scalability we need to quickly adjust to unforeseen traffic demands.”
A Modern-Day Makeover
Historically, service providers have relied on circuit switching in their core networks. That, of course, requires provisioning enough bandwidth and infrastructure to accommodate the highest possible traffic peaks to maintain integrity of the network services.
But that rigid circuit switching model breaks down when confronted by unpredictable, burst-prone traffic patterns, with peaks up to 12 times higher than the average. While traditional IP routing has the required flexibility…