Beats Cisco and leaves other vendors in the dust in Light Reading's ground-breaking evaluation of terabit routers

March 12, 2001

3 Min Read
Juniper Wins Monster Router Test

Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR)has defeated its number one rival, Cisco SystemsInc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), in the first multivendor test of Internet corerouters.

The independent evaluation, which was commissioned by LightReading and took six months to complete, proves that Juniper’s M160platform is currently superior to Cisco's latest 12416 product in three keyperformance areas: IP (Internet protocol), MPLS (multiprotocol labelswitching), and OC192 (10 Gbit/s). The vendors’ products are evenly matchedin the performance of their OC48 (2.5 Gbit/s) interfaces. (Click here toview the complete report).

The tests were performed for Light Reading by Network Test Inc., an independentbenchmarking and network design consultancy. “In some areas Juniper’s M160is in a class by itself,” says David Newman, president of Network Test.

His report on the test results concludes that:

“[The M160] holds more BGP (border gateway protocol) routes and moreMPLS label-switched paths than any other box. It deals with networkinstability far better. And it exhibits much lower average latency -– theamount of delay a router introduces -– and latency variation.”

Despite losing to Juniper in three out of four overall areas, the testresults also contained good news for Cisco. For example, the datademonstrates that its OC192 interfaces not only exist -– but can alsoprocess a torrent of data at line rate. Indeed, Cisco’s 12416 turned in thehighest single data rate achieved in the entire test: more than 271 millionpackets per second.

With improvements, Cisco’s router could represent serious competition forJuniper. “Cisco has served notice that it’s no longer the easy target thatallowed Juniper to gain 30 percent share in just a few years,” says NetworkTest’s Newman.

In contrast, the test results turned in by the other two vendorstested -- Charlotte’s Networks Inc. and Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) --were all cloud, no silver lining. Charlotte’s Networks’ Aranea-1fumbled packets at every level of loading offered – including one percent.Foundry’s Netiron pretty much gave up the ghost in the flapping andconvergence test (which might explain why, since the tests, the company hasannounced that it will withdraw from the core router market).

Results such as these will do little to encourage the belief that othervendors will be able to do anything to weaken Cisco and Juniper’sstranglehold on the market for Internet core routers for the foreseeablefuture. (Avici, which places a distant third to the two vendors in terms ofmarket share, failed to show up for the test.)

In an interview last year, Scott Kriens, CEO of Juniper, made the followingstatement to Light Reading: “Service providers already have twocredible sources for high-speed routers: Cisco and Juniper. The market hasyet to demonstrate that it wants a third.” On the basis of the LightReading test results, service providers couldn’t have a third sourceeven if they wanted it.

The diagnostic equipment used in the test was manufactured by Spirent Communications. The equipment, worth $2.6 million, was used to evaluate routers from the four vendorsworth a combined total of $29 million .

This is the first time that the networking industry has known for afact which company had the better product. Until now, serviceproviders and other customers have largely had to rely on vendor-sponsoredtests, marketing materials, and hearsay when analyzing core router products.

Light Reading’s test represents a number of other significant firsts:

  • The first multivendor test of core routers

  • The first test of 10-Gbit/s OC192 router interfaces

  • The first time that Cisco agreed to let any of its gear be evaluated in anindependent public test

    All of the test results are being published on Light Reading's new Web site,Light Testing (www.lightreading.com/testing), which is being launched today.Light Testing will host the results of a string of tests being planned by Light Reading on leading-edgeoptical networking equipment and services

    -- Stephen Saunders, U.S. editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com

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