Juniper Networks Inc. on Monday announced a new card for its T-series routers that enables service providers to meet growing bandwidth demands by sending 40gbps traffic over 10gbps optical transport networks.
“It removes the barrier to deploying 40gbps,” said Alan Sardella, product marketing manager for Juniper Network’s T-series routers. “The transport layer is stuck at 10gbps. Carriers are loath to upgrade that. It’s essentially like ripping up the highway.”
Instead, Juniper’s new 4xOC192 physical interface card (PIC) uses inverse multiplexing to transport 40gbps as four discrete OC192 connections over standard 10gbps XFP optical transponders common to most transport networks.
“These interfaces offer a feature that no one else can give us – we can integrate seamlessly with optical transport equipment while maintaining our existing management operations,” said Doug Junkins, vice president of the IP Engineering Global IP Network Business Unit for NTT America, in a press statement. NTT America has been using Juniper’s NGN solutions for its backbone since 1998.
Sardella explained that the alternatives to this interface are to transport 40gbps traffic outside of the DWDM system using a passive mux. The result is an unmanaged alien lambda. “That’s the rub,” he said. “You can’t tell what’s going on until you lose the signal.”
With Juniper’s solution, the 40gbps stream is split evenly using a framer chip. The resulting four 10gbps streams are able to pass through the DWDM system and be recombined at 40gbps at the T-series router on the other end.
The system can be used initially for 10gbps (OC192) traffic; a software command initiates the inverse multiplexing when greater bandwidth is required.
Sardella said the card enables carriers to put off upgrading their transport networks for a few years and to potentially skip over the 40gbps upgrade and go straight to 100gbps. “When the transport network is up to 100gbps, this [PIC] can be moved to the edge,” he added.
Juniper Networks Inc. www.juniper.net
