Network News: Juniper, Brocade, Ciena - May 2012

Here’s our review of some of today’s noteworthy links for the networking sector of the data center industry:

Juniper upgrades T Series Routers.  Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced a new capacity upgrade to the TXP multi-chassis routing system for all existing Juniper Networks T4000 and T1600 core routers. The new TXP system more than doubles the capacity of the previous generation and delivers customers greater scalability and investment protection by extending the lifespan and performance of their network infrastructures built on T Series Core Routers. The TXP multi-chassis routing system supports up to 22 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity with future scalability up to 64 Tbps. The upgrade for the TXP multi-chassis system will be available for shipment in the fourth quarter 2012."Service providers are dependent on the infrastructure they build to deliver profitable services, but they must also be nimble and flexible to scale these services, said Daniel Hua, senior vice president and general manager, Core Business Unit at Juniper. "Investment protection, operational continuity and future-ready scalability are critical components in infrastructure purchasing decisions. Expanding the capabilities of Juniper's TXP multi-chassis system, which is deployed in numerous networks worldwide, is clearly aligned with this strategy."

Brocade delivers 100G solutions for SDN.  Brocade (BRCD) announced it has outlined its strategy for software-defined networking (SDN). In support of this strategy, Brocade also announced that it has integrated hardware based OpenFlow support in the Brocade MLX Series of routers and related Brocade NetIron platforms, enabling customers to deploy SDN at wire-speed 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) performance. The company's SDN strategy includes resilient and auto-forming Ethernet fabrics, network virtualization, delivering OpenFlow in hybrid mode, open API's, and a cloud management and orchestration interface. "Software-defined networking is a networking paradigm to transition wide-area data networking from a pure transport business to a model that allows providers to optimize traffic flows based on a centralized, customizable control plane by utilizing technologies such as OpenFlow. This will enable service providers to offer cloud applications with on-demand end-to-end SLAs and innovative service offerings," said Nathan Raciborski, co-founder and CTO, Limelight Networks. "We are working closely with Brocade and other SDN technology leaders to innovate and deliver rich cloud based content services to our customers."

Ciena unveils intelligent control plane software. Ciena (CIEN) unveiled OneConnect Intelligent Control Plane, its next generation control plane software. OneConnect introduces a new level of programmability and advanced virtualization features for the Wide Area Network (WAN) as well as enables  rich policy-based control more extensively across the network. The OneConnect software will be available on Ciena’s multi-layer 6500 Packet-Optical Transport platform. OneConnect supports ASON and GMPLS industry standards, allows rich policy-based programming, provides virtualized Optical-VPN services, has latency-aware routing capabilities and can simultaneously run SONET/SDH and OTN control plane capabilities. “Ciena’s intelligent control plane software acts as the brain of the network by allowing service providers to fine tune their networks to be more intelligent and to quickly respond to changing network demands – without manual intervention," said Steve Alexander, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Ciena. "OneConnect is the result of Ciena’s 12 years of success in optical control plane design and innovation. With today’s announcement, we are extending that leadership across the entire network and also giving our customers new revenue streams through latency-based routing and Optical VPNs for new and yet to be discovered virtual, dynamic service offerings.” Ciena also announced that Indiana Fiber Network (IFN) will deploy Ciena's 5430 Packet-Optical Reconfigurable Switching System (RSS) and OneConnect intelligent control pane software to expand the capacity and service flexibility of its backbone network.