Alcatel-Lucent enables a faster, more efficient Internet
The international telecommunications group today unveiled products that modernize the global backbone of the Internet to deal with the new era of video and cloud-based services. In a similar way to telephone exchanges controlling the flow of voice traffic and communications, Internet Protocol (IP) core routers control the flow of data and video traffic in metropolitan areas and cities, across national network backbones and in the global Internet.
Rapidly rising demand for online video and data is being driven by smartphones, tablets, connected TVs and other devices, and enabled by faster copper, fiber and wireless broadband access. These dynamics are forcing network operators to accelerate capacity upgrades in the core of their networks. At the same time, the emergence of cloud-based services and personalized content is driving the need for more flexibility in these networks to quickly adapt to the requirements of consumers and businesses.
The 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System) allows network operators to embrace the rapid adoption of ‘cloud’ applications, the explosion in video traffic and the widespread use of smartphones and tablets and prepare the core of their networks for the next decade of growth.
Representing a new generation of core IP routers, the 7950 XRS is based on a compact, highly efficient system design that is built with the future in mind. The flagship of the family, the 7950 XRS-40, supports 32 terabits per second (Tbps) capacity and 160 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single system, which is five times the density of today’s core routers. Using the latest techniques in silicon and system design, the 7950 XRS also slashes power consumption by more than 66 percent compared to typical core routers.
With 100 gigabit per second (100G) links increasingly serving as the foundation of IP transport networks – and with 400G and Terabit (1000G) links on the horizon – the 7950 XRS accelerates and simplifies core network evolution, helping service providers more easily respond to customer demand. This unprecedented combination of capacity, efficiency and scale can significantly improve the economics of operating and expanding core IP networks.
Basil Alwan, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Division, said: “With the 7950 XRS we are revolutionizing the network core, just as we did over the past ten years at the network edge with service routing. Core networks are evolving at an unbelievable pace, with IP backbones and ‘metro’ cores facing a host of new requirements.”
Feature and flexibility
Traditional core routers have lacked performance and 100GE density, while recent alternatives have compromised on features and flexibility in an attempt to improve performance and density. Using the Alcatel-Lucent designed FP3 network processor unit (NPU) —a 400G NPU — the 7950 XRS eliminates this tradeoff between capacity and capability. The 7950 XRS has the versatility to support the distinct requirements of both IP backbone networks, which move vast amounts of Internet content around the world, and regional ‘metro’ core networks, where content is increasingly distributed for fast, efficient delivery to consumers and businesses.
The 7950 XRS also extends Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment to tighter integration between IP networks and optical transport networks. This includes support for transponder integration into the 7950 XRS at 10G, 40G and 100G speeds, efficient grooming of traffic from the IP layer into the optical transport network, common management with the industry-leading 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) platform and an Optical Extension Shelf capability that integrates the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) with the 7950 XRS.
Built to last
The 7950 XRS is designed to be easily expanded and upgraded to meet evolving demands. All aspects of system design have been optimized to ensure in-network scalability and non-stop operation. Every component of the platform design is modular, from power to cooling to all active components, making the system simple to maintain and upgrade. The 7950 XRS backplane and optical interconnect are designed to handle slot capacities of 2 Tbps, multi-chassis clustering that enables the system to scale up to 240 Tbps in the future, as well as support 400GE and 1 Terabit interfaces as they become available. It also inherits the robust and reliable Service Router Operating System (SR OS) that already supports residential, business and mobile broadband traffic in more than 450 service provider networks worldwide.
Rapid evolution
Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive of Alcatel-Lucent, said: "The new digital economy demands constant and rapid evolution of the networks that manage and deliver data traffic, connecting the hand of consumers with their content and applications in the cloud. Our market entry is the data equivalent of revolutionizing telephone exchanges. It will enable our customers to optimize the delivery of Internet video, gaming, photo sharing and data-hungry business applications."
Speaking at Alcatel-Lucent’s annual technology symposium, Mr. Verwaayen said the new technologies had been pioneered by the company’s fast-growing IP division, which has already secured more than 25 percent of the market for service provider ‘edge routers’.
Alcatel-Lucent estimates its new products, which have taken more than three years to develop, will deliver a five-fold improvement in capacity and performance as well as energy savings of 66 percent compared with today’s typical IP core routers. Network operators currently spend an estimated $4bn a year* on IP core routers and the combined global energy consumption of core routers has been estimated by Bell Labs to exceed 1.8 Terawatts by 2016, the equivalent of 128,000 homes.
"For over a decade we have invested in advanced silicon and software technology, most recently demonstrated by our breakthrough network processor chipset, FP3, announced in June 2011. Now we are applying this technology to the largest nodes in the Internet, core routers," said Basil Alwan, president of the company’s Internet Protocol division. "Our 7950 XRS core router systems sit at the massive intersections of the Internet, where billions of individual messages are directed to the correct destinations every second. Our technology will provide more capacity and more flexible traffic management with reduced energy consumption, helping to ensure better performance from global broadband networks."
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