As 100 gigabit Ethernet standards near approval, Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) Monday introduced the industry’s first 100 gigabit Ethernet router interface card for its T1600 Core Router, the company’s 1.6 terabit capacity router, which launched in summer 2007.
Juniper will show the 100gigE interface card at Interop Tokyo this week. It is expected to be deployed in customer pilot networks as early as August and operational in Internet2 by the end of the year. General availability is set for second quarter 2010.
The ITU Study Group 15 should complete its work on the network side standard for 100G this fall. The IEEE is expected to lock down the 802.3ba standard for client-side 100gigE this summer, with ratification expected by summer 2010.
Service providers, such as Verizon Communications Inc., have said they have plans to deploy 100G commercially by 2010. “The trials conducted in our network to date have focused on proving that our existing optical transmission systems are ready to support 100G. What has been missing so far is a true 100G client-side core router interface,” said Glenn Wellbrock, director of Optical Transport Network Architecture & Design, Verizon. “Given the growth in our FiOS, wireless and IP services, 100G is critical for the core of the network to scale efficiently and simply.”
Wellbrock said he was encouraged by Juniper’s development of the 100gigE interface for the T1600 routers.
The demand for high capacity is not new; carriers have been cobbling together 100gigabit through link aggregation. The 100gigE interfaces will eliminate the inefficiencies of that approach, explained Luc Ceuppens, vice president of product marketing for the High-End Systems Business unit at Juniper Networks. “Link aggregation is inefficient; it burns 10G ports and wavelengths,” he said.
Juniper’s solution effectively puts the link aggregation inside the router instead of outside, he said. “We have two 50gbps packet processing complexes. We traditionally send 50gigabits to the upper slot and 50 gigabits to the lower slot. What we do with the 100gigabit solution is bring these two 50 gigabit streams together into a new ASIC to create a 100 gigabit stream,” he explained.
“It behaves like a single blade. We did that because it was the fastest way to leverage existing technology and bring a 100gig application to market that satisfies the short-term problem [of link aggregation inefficiencies,]” he said. “The need to do 100gbps in a single processor is not there today.”
Ceuppens said the benefit to customers is a simplified topology with a reduced number of physical 10gig ports and 10gig fibers at a lower cost. Juniper’s offer, he added, will cost just under the current price tag for 10 10gigE interfaces, primarily because the components are not available in volume, but the goal will be to get to the cost equivalent of six to seven 10gigE interfaces.
Beyond solving the short-term (12-18 months) inefficiency problem, 100 gigabit Ethernet will help service providers support cloud computing, Ceuppens said. “We believe cloud computing will be a big driver going forward – even bigger than video,” he said, noting that the computing environment is moving to high-speed networked data center model. “Our architecture matches that model,” he said.
Juniper has shipped more than 5,000 T Series to more than 220 customers around the world — including more than 500 T1600s in just over a year of availability. According to Synergy Research Group, in the past five years, Juniper’s share of the core routing market has grown by 44 percent.
