Juniper Adds Intelligence to M- and MX-Series Routers

Noting that service providers are facing margin pressures by declining wireline and wireless ARPU while at the same time being pushed to invest in more infrastructure to support rich media, Juniper Networks (JNPR) today detailed a variety of new hardware and software functionality for its M- and MX-series routers that the vendor said will help carriers address these challenges. Juniper said these new offers, which fall under its Intelligent Services Edge effort, will help service providers create new business models to grow revenue, by adding and scaling services, in this challenging environment.

The Intelligent Services Edge, according to Juniper, leverages a single, consistent operating system ─ JUNOS ─ and high-performance hardware to deliver a variety of services, including broadband routing, voice, multimedia and integrated security, as well as application-level awareness.

The Intelligent Services Edge will extend the power of JUNOS by adding the following advanced edge services:

• Broadband services routing, which extends subscriber management technology from the E-series Broadband Services Routers to the M- and MX-series platforms;
• Dynamic application awareness, which leverages Juniper’s security and policy management to provide stateful, subscriber-aware application monitoring, enabling advanced, application-specific service levels and QoS treatments;
• Intrusion prevention, which provides application-layer security leveraging Juniper’s intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) technology;
• and session border control (SBC) functionality, which manages VoIP and multimedia sessions to ensure QoS and security for VoIP and multimedia applications.

For the MX-series Ethernet Services Routers, Juniper is introducing the MultiServices DPC, a high performance, purpose-built processing engine that will enable customers to run the new JUNOS services announced today without impacting the routers’ forwarding performance. With the MultiServices DPC, customers will also be able to deploy security features such as stateful firewall, NAT and IPSec directly on the MX-series router, in addition to routing and switching. The MultiServices DPC also can host applications developed by customers and partners through Juniper’s Open IP Solution Development Program (OSDP). The PSDP continues to grow with new partners and customers developing innovative applications, such as the video monitoring application under development by Triveni Digital.

The MX-series will also be enhanced with the addition of a new Flexible PIC Concentrator that provides packet over SONET capabilities, leveraging the same OC-48 and OC-192 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.

Juniper will also enhance the scale and performance of its M-series multiservice routers by extending next generation packet processing hardware to its M7i and M10i systems. Available on a new forwarding engine board, which can be purchased separately and added non-disruptively to existing chassis, the new hardware will enable customers to leverage existing investments to keep costs at a minimum. With the upgraded processing board, the M7i and M10i can deliver up to 68 percent more capacity, while using 57 percent less power per Gigabit, when compared with competitively sized systems.

Some of the Intelligent Services Edge hardware and software additions, which are available for purchase individually, are already available. The full suite of Intelligent Services Edge hardware and software enhancements is expected to be available by Q309. The software licenses are purchased individually and begin at $25,000. The new hardware starts at $32,000.

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