Pimp My Ride: Edge Routers Offer More Bling

The MX-series also will be enhanced with the addition of a new Flexible PIC Concentrator that provides packet over SONET capabilities, leveraging the same OC48 and OC192 Physical Interface Cards (PICs) used for M- and T-series platforms. This will enable providers to use the MX-series to connect to traditional, non-Ethernet-based networks for the first time, providing maximum investment protection and reducing sparing costs by leveraging M- and T-series PICs.

Meanwhile, Redback offers the SmartEdge family of edge routers, which offer a modular OS, support both ATM- and Ethernet-based aggregation, deliver IP MPLS edge routing functionality to enable VPN business services, identify and apply various treatments for different applications, and include a variety of additional features, including deep packet inspection, session border controller and peer-to-peer control functionality.

Jeff Baher, senior director of product marketing at Redback, which made its name in broadband aggregation, said while some vendors offer only ATM-based aggregation or Ethernet-based aggregation on their edge router products, it’s important to do both to address the needs of service providers. That’s because while aggregation clearly is moving to Ethernet, the majority of broadband aggregation today still is based on ATM.

And Alcatel-Lucent sells the 7750 Service Routers and 7450 Ethernet Service Switches, which it enhanced last year by increasing their capacity by 10 QoS features.

So, now that edge routers are decked out with all this capacity and functionality, what’s next for this product category?

Redback’s Baher said its on the fixed mobile convergence, or FMC, front. Just as wireline began an evolution from circuit to packet technology several years ago, wireless networks now are beginning the same evolution as the industry moves to 4G, IP-based networks such as LTE and WiMAX.

“Now when wireless networks move to LTE and WiMAX and those radio networks are pumping a lot more bandwidth into the network, they’re going to have to move that demark of the service point,” said Baher. “They’re going to have to move that further out, along the lines of what we did in terms of moving the core and the edge of the packet infrastructure further out.”

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