Juniper extends data center interconnect options

New line cards, BTI technology integration part of Open Cloud Interconnect package

Large data center interconnect users needing high-speed connectivity and bandwidth for access to massive cloud resources have a new option to handle these demands.

Juniper today rolled out its Open Cloud Interconnect package which includes Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing optical boards for its QFX10000 Layer 3 spine switch and BTI7800 optical transport switch families as well as software to manage those systems.

+More Juniper coverage on Network World: Juniper battles Cisco, Huawei with new cloud infrastructure software, switches+

Specifically the company announced:

  • QFX10000 Coherent DWDM Line Card: The card supports 1.2Tbps of optical capacity with six ports of up to 200Gbps each. With the Coherent DWDM Line Card, QFX10000 customers can combine DCI-optimized Ethernet VPN (EVPN), VXLAN and MacSec security with highly scalable, low-power coherent DWDM.
  • The UFM6 line card for the BTI 7800: A new muxponder/transponder combining 10 configurable 10GE/100GE client ports and two coherent DWDM ports of up to 200Gbps each. The UFM6 also supports SD-FEC for increased performance across metro, regional and long-haul spans up to 2000 km and is interoperable with Juniper and third-party coherent DWDM linecards.
  • Extended management: Juniper’s proNX Service Manager software now manages coherent optical interfaces across Juniper’s MX and PTX Series Routers, QFX Series Switches and the BTI Series packet optical portfolio. Enhanced levels of network visibility and multi-layer control are now available through YANG-based integration of proNX Service Manager and Juniper NorthStar Controller.

Some of the technology in the Juniper system came from its acquisition of BTI Systems a year ago. BTI offered cloud and metro networking systems. At the time, Network World wrote that BTI will let Juniper accelerate delivery of packet optical transport systems for the data center interconnect and metro optical networking markets and indeed that has come to fruition.

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“Open Cloud Interconnect offers customers multiple ways to build DCI networks, including over open and disaggregated optical transport,” said Donyel Jones-Williams, director of product marketing at Juniper Networks. The package supports a mix of routing, switching, packet optical, network management and software-defined networking to enhance the performance of cloud content, services and applications, he stated.

Cloud application delivery is certainly one of the main drivers for this kind of offering but users are looking to tie together data centers as a virtual pool of resources as well, said Shin Umeda, a vice president with researchers at the Dell’Oro Group.

Umeda said that Juniper’s DCI move puts it in closer competition with Cisco, Arista and Huawei from the IP routing and switching side and Cisco, Ciena, Adva, Nokia and others in the optical switching arena.

“The move gives Juniper a stake in the ground in both IP and optical DCI markets and the BTI technology is a differentiator for it in the optical area,” Umeda said.

Keeping its cloud customers happy would also be a goal for Juniper as the company said in its most recent financial statement that five of its top 10 customers are cloud providers, three were telecoms and two enterprises.

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