Juniper Networks embraces 400 Gigabit Ethernet

Juniper Networks has announced plans to roll out 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) capabilities across its PTX, QFX, and MX series lines. The upcoming products will leverage the recently unveiled Jupiter Penta Silicon or new generations of ExpressPlus and Q5 silicon.

The company sees an impending requirement for 400GbE connectivity in backbone, peering, data center interconnect, scale-out metro core, telco-cloud services, and hyperscale data center IP fabric applications. Such connections will require low latency and strong security as well as high bandwidth, the company added.

Juniper Networks first discussed the 400GbE-capable Penta Silicon when it debuted the MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform this past June (see “Juniper Networks unveils MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform”). The silicon enables the MX Series 5G to accommodate 400GbE requirements as well as native MACsec and IPsec encryption. For the PTX and QFX families, Juniper Network will offer new platforms for 400GbE requirements:

The 3-RU PTX10003 Packet Transport Router will target 100GbE and 400GbE requirements in backbone, peering, and data center interconnect applications. Juniper Networks touts the PTX10003 as the first packet transport router to accommodate universal multi-rate QSFP-DD interfaces for seamless 100GbE to 400GbE upgrades. The system also will support native MACsec security in 160x100GbE and FlexE friendly 32x400GbE interface configurations. The PTX10003 will leverage the next generation of ExpressPlus silicon and is expected to be available during the second half of 2018.

The QFX data center switch family will see two additions. The new QFX10003 switches offer 32x400GbE in a 3-RU form factor, with support of 160x100GbE. The QFX10003, based on the next generation of Q5 silicon, will offer a deep buffer enabled by Hybrid Memory Cube memory. This capability will enable the switch to absorb network traffic spikes and reduce application latency across MACsec encrypted 25GbE, 50GbE, and 100GbE connections, says the company. The QFX10003 should be available during the second half of 2018 as well. Meanwhile, new QFX5220 switches, based on merchant silicon, will support 32x400GbE in 1 RU. The platforms will accommodate 50GbE, 100GbE, and 400GbE interfaces for server and inter-fabric connectivity. The QFX5220 is expected to be available in the first half of 2019.

The move appears well timed. “Internet traffic is growing exponentially and we need a way to keep cost-per-bit down while still keeping up with the exploding traffic growth. Juniper’s announcement adding 400GbE capability is a huge step in the right direction for solving these challenges we face,” said Junichi Shimagami, director and CTO at Internet Initiative Japan Inc., via a Juniper Networks press release.

“Operators, cloud service providers and enterprises are under constant pressure to efficiently address unrelenting traffic growth, and they are looking at 400G as a key enabler to do so,” added Matthias Machowinski, senior research director at IHS Markit. “2018 marks the start of the commercial 400G market, with volumes ramping up in 2019 as 400G trials across WDM, service provider routing, and data center switching applications convert into production deployments. We expect $10 billion will be spent on 400G technologies over the next five years.”

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