Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation, has introduced new solutions that expand on its open standards-based software-defined networking (SDN) portfolio to enable carriers to accelerate service creation and build networks that deliver a customized end-user experience. Together with its Contrail technology, Juniper’s solutions give service providers the ability to increase network utilization and deliver new, customized services to their customers in real-time. With these latest developments, Juniper now offers the industry’s only open, secure, multi-layered, multi-domain SDN solution.
Service providers remain under significant pressure to stay profitable in the face of a data deluge driven by high-definition video streaming, mobile data, cloud computing and Internet-connected devices. At the same time, consumers now expect more customized experiences. According to a recent Bain & Company study, consumers paid an average of 28 percent more for customized goods than “off-the-shelf” products from the same manufacturer.[1]
Today, however, service providers must perform complicated and cumbersome manual network changes that prevent the possibility of dynamic bandwidth, function and service provisioning.
Juniper Networks is expanding its SDN portfolio with new software and hardware to help service providers build high-IQ networks and cloud environments. These networks are secure, automated and scalable, enabling rapid service provisioning based on actionable intelligence.
The new SDN solutions from Juniper – which will help carriers address impending 5G demands – reduce complexity, enable networks to securely and intuitively adapt to user preferences in real-time and make existing hardware more efficient and versatile. These innovations will enable service providers to:
1. Automate network operations for simplicity and agility in response to dynamic service needs, while reducing operational costs.
- Juniper has unveiled Junos® Fusion, software that can control thousands of independent network elements – either from Juniper or a third-party – from a single management plane. A large network may have multiple core routers, hundreds of edge routers and tens of thousands of additional touch points for transport, aggregation and backhaul, such as microwave, mobile or optical devices. With Junos Fusion, service providers can reduce network complexity and operational costs by collapsing those underlying transport elements into a single point of control from the Juniper Networks® MX Series or PTX Series routing platforms. Junos Fusion is fully interoperable with third-party solutions and is extensible to SDN control.
- Combining Junos Fusion with the Juniper Networks Contrail controller and Junos Space network management software provides a powerful portfolio of capabilities to simplify the network and make it more responsive to changing service offerings and needs. Junos Fusion will be available Q2 2014.
2. Scale the network infrastructure with silicon and SDN to deliver the performance and efficiency needed to economically meet demand.
- Juniper is expanding its SDN portfolio with Juniper Networks NorthStar Controller, a new traffic-engineering controller leveraging open, industry-standard protocols built to optimize service providers’ transport networks. Expected to be available in the second half of 2014, the NorthStar Controller will automatically identify and program the optimal path within a multi-vendor network, based on operator-defined performance and cost requirements. This will allow service providers to increase utilization, create service-oriented network paths and dynamically adjust to changing network conditions. As a result, service providers can better support dynamic mobile and cloud traffic, avoid costly over provisioning, mitigate wasted CAPEX spend and reduce planning cycles of current static networks.
- Through the integration of WANDL technology, recently acquired by Juniper Networks, NorthStar Controller is equipped with highly intelligent analytics and modeling capabilities to enhance the performance and cost-effectiveness of an operator’s network infrastructure.
- Juniper is also introducing its 1 TB line cards adding further scale to the PTX Series router. Available in Q2 2014, the new line cards double the PTX router’s per-slot capacity to provide operators with more usable per-path bandwidth, yield greater network efficiency and reduce additional CAPEX and OPEX.
3. Create new customizable services rapidly using an intelligent and programmable network to increase revenue and brand equity.
- Creating value for service providers is predicated on knowing what users are doing on the network and being able to act on it quickly. Today, with the new Junos Video Focus, Junos Subscriber Aware, Junos Application Aware and Junos Policy Control products available on the MX Series routers, operators can use the MX in the Gi-LAN as a Service Control Gateway (SCG) to custom-tailor service experiences not only based on who is using the network, but what they are using it for. These SCG functions will be available in mid-2014.
- Together with Juniper Networks Contrail, service providers can leverage that intelligence to immediately implement Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and quickly provision new services, such as security firewalls like Firefly Perimeter and DDoS Secure, as well as adapt to changing business needs. In addition, service providers can create different service experiences and service chains for different subscribers, based on device, network or application, and charge accordingly.
- Juniper has also introduced the CSE2000 Carrier Services Engine, a purpose-built, NEBS-compliant server platform for the service provider environment. This provides customers with the flexibility to virtualize network functions on the router, in a carrier-grade central office (CO) or on a standard x86 server in the data center, providing the ability to optimize service location based on performance and cost requirements. The CSE2000 is available now.
To assist customers with the transition to highly customizable networks, Juniper Networks offers a full range of professional services. These include assessment, planning and migration services to support customers with roadmap development, design, deployment and integration with their existing service provider operations.
[1] Bain Consumer survey, 2013
