Juniper Networks Intros New Silicon to Upgrade T Series Core Routers

February 08, 2010

The new generation of silicon that will enable customers to quickly, efficiently and non-disruptively upgrade existing T Series Core Routers to a full duplex slot capacity of 250 Gbps without service interruption. The new chipset lays the foundation for a total capacity of 4 Tbps in a single, half-rack system, ensuring that customers can continue to scale the T Series in line with rapidly accelerating service, subscriber and bandwidth growth.

The unique ability to scale the T Series while in service represents a key component of Juniper's overall commitment to investment protection, continuous systems availability and operational continuity. With Unified In-Service Software Upgrades, customers can upgrade Junos Software from one version to the next with minimal risk of service interruption.

"The T Series is a highly valued part of our core network delivering IPv4 and IPv6 routed services, in large part because of Juniper's long-term product strategy and vision, which protects our investments in network infrastructure," said Erik-Jan Bos, CTO at SURFnet, a subsidiary of the SURF organization, in which Dutch universities, universities for applied sciences and research centers collaborate nationally and internationally on innovative ICT facilities. "This new silicon is an excellent example of Juniper's commitment to investment protection. Just as we were able to upgrade T640s to T1600s, Juniper is again making it possible to extend the lifecycle of our core routers with a non-disruptive upgrade path that ensures the scalability to meet the continuous growth of traffic in our IP routed core. That is why we are also excited about the true line-rate 100GE router trials on the SURFnet network."

Exceeding 5,500 systems shipped worldwide to date, Juniper's T Series is the only core router in the industry capable of supporting true line-rate 100 GE interfaces. With the TX Matrix Plus, T1600 customers can evolve to multi-chassis systems at massive scale. The new chipset will further enable the scaling of single chassis systems up to 4 Tbps.

"Considering the growth in wireless and IP services, flexible high-performance network platforms that support 100 GE are critical for the core of the network to scale efficiently and simply," said Ray Mota, managing partner, ACG Research. "By committing to continuous expansion of its T Series routers, Juniper is providing their customers with the capability to leverage and expand existing assets to scale the core with maximum operational efficiency and investment protection."

Built in 45-nanometer technology, the chipset yields total router throughput surpassing 4 Tbps, far exceeding the performance and scale of off-the-shelf silicon. The chipset includes advanced diagnostic capabilities, auto detection and self-healing, and also incorporates significant power efficiency features to enable more environmentally-conscious data center and service provider networks.

"The T Series is fundamentally different from any other router on the market because its architecture was designed to deliver leading core capacity and scale," said Stefan Dyckerhoff, senior vice president and general manager, Core Business Unit, Juniper Networks. "The chipset we are introducing today is the next step in our core routing strategy, delivering unparalleled investment protection and enabling our customers to continually scale their networks."

The first trials with products that use the new chipset technology are scheduled for the second half of 2010 and will be available for purchase in early 2011.