Juniper aims to virtualize the IP core

Juniper Networks today announced the creation of a new ultrahigh-capacity routing platform meant to mimic in IP core networks the trend of virtualization seen in the data center world.

The vendor’s TX Matrix Plus, announced today, can be used to interconnect up to 16 T-1600 core routers, forming a core routing system with a total capacity of up to 25 terabits per second in 11 standard racks.

When operated with Juniper’s JCS 1200 external control plane platform, the TX Matrix Plus can be partitioned -- in 100 Gb/s slots -- to apply dedicated network resources to different services, thus protecting the performance of each service from problems encountered by other services delivered over the same router. This partitioning of hardware ports is much more robust than, for example, software-based virtual private networks.

The system, generally available in the third quarter, is essentially a three-stage system in which the TX Matrix Plus supplies the center-stage switching fabric, and new switch interface cards allow the 1600 to supply the first and third stages.

Because the 1200 allows services to be partitioned and separated into dedicated ports, according to Juniper, the system allows multiple providers to share the same network hardware but in a way that doesn’t allow them to interfere with one another’s services -- distributing the cost of power, space, chassis and interfaces. In this way, Juniper aims to “virtualize” routers the same way data centers have already been virtualized – with discrete servers giving way to blades.

That ability to share routers, along with the TX Matrix Plus’s high capacity, could allow, for example, multiple mobile operators, which often share resources at mobile base stations today, to share Juniper’s core routing platform. Or it could allow wholesalers to lease dedicated IP networks to smaller providers who can’t afford to build their own. And larger carriers with higher traffic levels can use the platform to combine multiple service overlays into one service-partitioned network, Juniper said.

“You can now achieve convergence in a lot of parts of the network without impacting the way you run your business,” said Luc Ceuppens, senior director of product marketing in Juniper’s high-end systems business unit. “They are still individual routers that can be managed by individual groups within service providers. They’re just sharing a common infrastructure.”

“Providers know they need to converge their networks, but embedded in their organizations are standard ways of operating that may take longer to change,” said Eve Griliches, an analyst with IDC, in a note on Juniper’s new product. “Juniper is introducing network virtualization so that providers can enable virtualization in their core without changing their operating environment.”

One of the applications Juniper imagines carriers using the new core platform for is addressing so-called over-the-top Internet content, which often congests networks without delivering a concomitant revenue stream to the carrier. With the TX Matrix Plus, Juniper said, carriers could offer dedicated resources on an IP core network, and thus sell guaranteed quality of service (QoS), to over-the-top providers.