Juniper Intros Separate Control Plane for Converged IP Networks

Juniper Networks Inc. recently unveiled a standalone control plane product, the JCS 1200, which works in concert with the company’s T-series router to address Tier 1 service providers’ need to support multiple services on converged IP networks.

In router architectures, the control plane, typically internal to the router, provides the intelligence to perform such functions as running protocols and doing forwarding tables, explains Scott Heinlein, senior manager of service provider marketing. But as more applications and services are added to the network, scalability and stability can become an issue, he says.

The JCS 1200, a 12RU chassis that provides 12 routing engine slots, helps service providers address those control plane issues by enabling them to set up multiple, separate virtualized routers, says Alan Sardella, Juniper senior product marketing manager. Juniper says that when used in conjunction with a T1600 router, the JCS 1200 can create virtualized routers while delivering as much as three times the forwarding capacity of competitive systems — while using 25 percent less rack space.

For example, a service provider might have two routing engines on the JCS 1200 assigned to two line cards on a T-series router and run MPLS on that; meanwhile, other engines within the JCS 1200 might be running IP VPLS services, he says. The idea is that each service has individual control plane requirements, so the JCS 1200 can separate services based on their QoS and other needs.

Sardella adds that service providers who are running a couple of business services, like VPLS and MPLS, on a T-series router might not be maxing out the data plane processing capacity on the product, but that they may need more control plane capacity if they want to add, for example, a consumer video-on-demand or broadband IPTV service to the product.

"The largest service providers are finding they really need this extra service separation to keep track of multiple networks," says Sardella of Juniper, which in 1996 came out with the M40 core router, which introduced the concept of distributing control and forwarding functions to different processors within a router.

The base price for the JCS 1200, which will be generally available in the second quarter, will be around $100,000.

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