re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
@yarn
Well, that is port density not capacity, so "5X 100GE port density compcared to CRS-3". Like others mentioned, Huawei NE5K already has 32 100GE per rack today.
The leading power number in the industry is less than 3W/Gigbit. So the XRS 400G line-card power consumption number is about 3 * (1-66%) * 400 = 400W. That is indeed impressive. Can someone confirm it?
Regarding capabilities, the video is kind of vague on what capabilities XRS can bring to the core. IP, Ethernet, and MPLS are not new additions to the core networks anymore. Are providers really demanding any complex capabilities in the core today? I'd like to hear more details about this.
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
It is obviously great to have more capacity with more capabilities, however I am not convinced that changing a simple core to a complex edge is a good idea.
Well said.
P.S. There is some double-counting. See:
" has 16 Tbit/s of capacity (80 100Gbit/s Ethernet ports)"
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
@desi,
Good point. I am not questioning ALU's chipset development capability - as I said they are leading at the edge. In the video, they claim to be able to always keep the same capabilities as moving up to high capacity. I was just questioning that - as I see it is not just a single chip thing.
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
Hi uguess,
Let's ask the same about the Trio or Ezchip or whoever else might have a 100Gbps NP., paraphrasing your words:
What I am not sure about is whether the same chipset architecture can go beyond 100G to 400G without significant changes. Also system capabilities depend on the total package, not just forwarding chip, e.g., SDRAM, TCAM, etc. , so it seems not practical to always claim edge-like capabilites as capacity grows exponentially.
ALU appears to have done it - i.e., gone from their 100G chip to 400G, while building a "total" package of SDRAM, TCAM, etc. around it. Instead of asking if they can make the next jump to 1Tbps, let's ask the industry to catch up.
Anyway, impressive work by ALU. Other than Verizon, did any other customers endorse or at least make positive grunts?
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
Thanks to some creative marketing by cisco, we're all confused. I believe everyone is standardizing on this approach: a port number is based on full-duplex numbers, but capacity is doubled because it's based on half-duplex numbers. That makes both marketing and engineering happy, and all of us feeling a little suspicious :-)
There's also an unwritten rule about how to state switch fabric capacity - I think it should be in full-duplex numbers because you really shouldn't be doing anything other than sending as much as you received on the fabric. You have to look for words like "capable of" to figure that the switch fabric has more capacity than the line cards. E.g., my MultiTron 948-Z is capable of 6.4 Tbps, but its current capacity is 100 Gbps with five 10Gbps line cards.
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
Thanks Desi. I think it's a typo. Should be 160*100G or 2*80*100G. Lol, reading through the first time, I thought a single subrack/chassis could do 16T :) That would have been impressive! Kudos to ALU.
How are you? Trust you are keeping well. Anyway, it's the weekend and way past my bedtime. Have a good evening.
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
@uguess. Port density really translates into capacity per rack, which I think is a meaningful benchmark. Total system capacity of multi-chassis configurations are interesting but they're less practical. E.g. 320 Tb/s looks cool on paper, but 72 racks is not going to happen in reality.
The guys to beat in the core are Cisco and Juniper. Huawei may have a better port density (and likely price) than CRS-3 and T-4000, but it lacks the features and the credibility to displace either of them, while the PTX is on par. ALU has a leg up here given their existing presence and performance in the IP edge market.
The core is a slightly different animal though, so it's going to be interesting to see how things will play out.
re: Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Get Core-Router Upgrades
Hi yarn,
I like this line of yours: "The guys to beat in the core are Cisco and Juniper." For one and only one reason - every carrier uses either Cisco or Juniper. Who cares about what anyone else can do?
@yarn
Well, that is port density not capacity, so "5X 100GE port density compcared to CRS-3". Like others mentioned, Huawei NE5K already has 32 100GE per rack today.
The leading power number in the industry is less than 3W/Gigbit. So the XRS 400G line-card power consumption number is about 3 * (1-66%) * 400 = 400W. That is indeed impressive. Can someone confirm it?
Regarding capabilities, the video is kind of vague on what capabilities XRS can bring to the core. IP, Ethernet, and MPLS are not new additions to the core networks anymore. Are providers really demanding any complex capabilities in the core today? I'd like to hear more details about this.