Chiaro Networks revealed its new, high-end routing platform that uses transforming technologies to help solve the "crisis of cost" issues that service providers are experiencing in their quest for profitability.
The routing platform ? Enstara ? is now available for network operators to transition from their best-effort IP network to a strategic global IP infrastructure. The company also announced today the deployment of Enstara within the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology's [Cal-(IT)?] next generation grid network, OptIPuter, which furthers the concept of communication and computer consolidation.
"Our focus has remained on developing a routing platform that reduces IP network complexity and takes a major leap forward in helping service providers reduce network infrastructure costs," said Ken Lewis, president and chief executive officer of Chiaro Networks. "While publicly we've seemed quiet, and maybe a little mysterious, behind the scenes we've been tending to business and diligently working with key customers to ensure that we have the feature set and value proposition required in today's networking dynamic."
One of Chiaro's significant innovations is STateful Assured Routinga(STAR) that protects against hardware and software failures and ensures hitless maintenance activities. STAR is key for IP networks to achieve 99.999% availability, a necessary requirement to achieve network consolidation.
Chiaro's optical switching technology, Optical Phased Array™ (OPA), changes the paradigm of how multi-chassis routers are designed. This revolutionary technology converges optics and packet switching to create simpler, less costly network architecture.
Cal-(IT)? and Chiaro Networks also announced a partnership supporting development of the "OptIPuter," a next-generation optical networking Grid. Chiaro will supply Enstara to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) OptIPuter testbed and become a Cal-(IT)2 industry partner. It joins other institute partners, including IBM, Telcordia Technologies and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), on the OptIPuter initiative.
The OptIPuter is named for optical networking, Internet Protocol, and computer storage and processing. The powerful distributed cyber-infrastructure project is designed to support data-intensive scientific research and collaboration, especially in earth and biomedical sciences. The convergence of two technologies ? Grid middleware, and multiple wavelengths of light (termed "lambdas") on single optical fibers ? is leading to the creation of LambdaGrids, which essentially eliminate bandwidth as a barrier to interactive exploration of large remote databases.
The project is led by Cal-(IT)? researchers at UCSD, the University of California, Irvine, San Diego State University, and University of Southern California; and researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago with its partner Northwestern University. Major funding for the project comes from a recently announced $13.5 million award from the National Science Foundation.
The OptIPuter will enable scientists who are generating massive amounts of data to interactively correlate, analyze and visualize their data from multiple storage sites connected to optical networks.
Enstara can seamlessly integrate 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), OC-192 (10 Gbits/sec) and future OC-768 (40 Gbits/sec) interfaces. In addition, the system design incorporates programmable network processors. Access to these network processors allows OptIPuter researchers to test and explore new types of protocols while the network is running applications.
For more information about Chiaro Networks (Richardson, TX), visit the company's website at www.chiaro.com.