Network News: Juniper, Brocade, Ciena

Juniper

Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced a new capacity upgrade to the TXP multi-chassis routing system for all existing Juniper Networks T4000 and T1600 core routers. The new TXP system more than doubles the capacity of the previous generation and delivers customers greater scalability and investment protection by extending the lifespan and performance of their network infrastructures built on T Series Core Routers. The TXP multi-chassis routing system supports up to 22 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity with future scalability up to 64 Tbps. The upgrade for the TXP multi-chassis system will be available for shipment in the fourth quarter 2012.”Service providers are dependent on the infrastructure they build to deliver profitable services, but they must also be nimble and flexible to scale these services, said Daniel Hua, senior vice president and general manager, Core Business Unit at Juniper. “Investment protection, operational continuity and future-ready scalability are critical components in infrastructure purchasing decisions. Expanding the capabilities of Juniper’s TXP multi-chassis system, which is deployed in numerous networks worldwide, is clearly aligned with this strategy.”


Brocade
 
Brocade (BRCD) announced it has outlined its strategy for software-defined networking (SDN). In support of this strategy, Brocade also announced that it has integrated hardware based OpenFlow support in the Brocade MLX Series of routers and related Brocade NetIron platforms, enabling customers to deploy SDN at wire-speed 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) performance. The company’s SDN strategy includes resilient and auto-forming Ethernet fabrics, network virtualization, delivering OpenFlow in hybrid mode, open API’s, and a cloud management and orchestration interface. ”Software-defined networking is a networking paradigm to transition wide-area data networking from a pure transport business to a model that allows providers to optimize traffic flows based on a centralized, customizable control plane by utilizing technologies such as OpenFlow. This will enable service providers to offer cloud applications with on-demand end-to-end SLAs and innovative service offerings,” said Nathan Raciborski, co-founder and CTO, Limelight Networks. “We are working closely with Brocade and other SDN technology leaders to innovate and deliver rich cloud based content services to our customers.”



Ciena

Ciena unveils intelligent control plane software. Ciena (CIEN) unveiled OneConnect Intelligent Control Plane, its next generation control plane software. OneConnect introduces a new level of programmability and advanced virtualization features for the Wide Area Network (WAN) as well as enables rich policy-based control more extensively across the network. The OneConnect software will be available on Ciena’s multi-layer 6500 Packet-Optical Transport platform. OneConnect supports ASON and GMPLS industry standards, allows rich policy-based programming, provides virtualized Optical-VPN services, has latency-aware routing capabilities and can simultaneously run SONET/SDH and OTN control plane capabilities. “Ciena’s intelligent control plane software acts as the brain of the network by allowing service providers to fine tune their networks to be more intelligent and to quickly respond to changing network demands – without manual intervention,” said Steve Alexander, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Ciena. ”OneConnect is the result of Ciena’s 12 years of success in optical control plane design and innovation. With today’s announcement, we are extending that leadership across the entire network and also giving our customers new revenue streams through latency-based routing and Optical VPNs for new and yet to be discovered virtual, dynamic service offerings.” Ciena also announced that Indiana Fiber Network (IFN) will deploy Ciena’s 5430 Packet-Optical Reconfigurable Switching System (RSS) and OneConnect intelligent control pane software to expand the capacity and service flexibility of its backbone network.

Brocade takes on Cisco in the campus

Brocade this week has unveiled switches for the enterprise campus designed to help users to affordably scale their networks.
The Ethernet switches are intended to attract customers looking for increased price/performance at lower cost. They are aimed directly at Cisco's dominance in enterprise switching, with Brocade claiming that they offer five times the bandwidth at one-third the cost of comparable Cisco products.
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The first of these new products is the Brocade ICX 6610, an Ethernet access switch that features a stacking bandwidth of 320Gbps -- five times that of Cisco and other competitors, Brocade says -- and 8x10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports.

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Brocade this week has unveiled switches for the enterprise campus designed to help users to affordably scale their networks.

The Ethernet switches are intended to attract customers looking for increased price/performance at lower cost. They are aimed directly at Cisco's dominance in enterprise switching, with Brocade claiming that they offer five times the bandwidth at one-third the cost of comparable Cisco products.

The first of these new products is the Brocade ICX 6610, an Ethernet access switch that features a stacking bandwidth of 320Gbps -- five times that of Cisco and other competitors, Brocade says -- and 8x10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports.

The 6610 is available in 24- or 48-port RJ45 configurations, and 24-port SFP. There's a PoE+ option available for the switches, to power VoIP phones or IP video cameras. The uplinks can be either 8x Gigabit Ethernet SFP, or 8x10G Ethernet SFP+, with an additional license.

The dedicated stacking ports are 4x40G Ethernet QSFP.

The 6610s support full Layer 3 capabilities -- IPv4, IPv6 and multicast -- sFlow for network traffic accounting, 12,000 ACLs, 16,000 routes, 32,000 MAC table entries and 8,000 multicast groups. The line also features hitless stacking failover, redundant stacking links and redundant, removable, load-sharing power supplies and fans.

For the aggregation and core areas of the network, Brocade also rolled out new blades and performance and scalability enhancements for its FastIron SX series of chassis-based switches. That line also includes the new high-density 8x10G Ethernet blades, which enables the FastIron SX to scale up to 128 ports of 10G Ethernet, up to four times the port density of the previous generation.
Other enhancements to the line include hitless failover to provide high levels of availability, Multi-Chassis Trunking (MCT) for active-active resiliency that's designed to overcome the traditional active-passive redundancy of Spanning Tree, plus MACsec encryption and Energy Efficient Ethernet-ready hardware for investment protection.

MCT lets two FSX chassis operate as a single fully redundant active/active logical switch with no Spanning Tree overhead, Brocade says. It is a Brocade-developed technology and is not based on the IEEE's Shortest Path Bridging or the IETF's TRILL specifications.

Hitless failover and in-service software upgrades mean there's no service interruption with outages or new software image loading. The FSX also features hot module and line card replacement.
Brocade also claims the FastIron SX chassis switches are 40% less than the Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Nexus 7000 switches per 10G Ethernet port.

The Brocade ICX 6610 will be available this month starting at $5,595. The new FastIron SX Series modules will also be available this month, with a starting price of $4,495. Brocade says the switches are also eligible for the company's network subscription purchasing service.

MCT will be available in early 2012 for the FastIron SX Series. Brocade has also reduced the price of its FCX Series stackable switches by an average of 20%.