Juniper Prunes Back Its Packet-Optical PlanJuniper Prunes Back Its Packet-Optical Plan

Juniper Networks Inc. has removed its PTX9000 product from most public documents, saying that it's going to build that packet-optical transport system (P-OTS) on a custom basis. While Juniper continues to ship the PTX5000, it's taken the bigger PTX9000 off of the website and removed it from the PTX data sheet. Here's a before-and-after comparison: BEFORE: Note the PTX 9000 playing in the packet-optical core. AFTER: In a more recent revision, the '9000 is replaced by a second PTX 5000. What gives? "The product team made a decision to lead with the PTX5000 on the public facing website. Since the PTX9000 is a highly specialized product aimed at a very specific buyer, we address these unique customer requirements on a case-by-case basis and can build PTX9000s to order," a Juniper spokesman tells Light Reading in an email. The PTXs are label-switched routers (LSRs), built to switch large volumes of MPLS traffic at the heart of an IP/MPLS network. The PTX9000 can support up to 768 10Gbit/s ports, twice as many as the PTX5000, and both systems are capable of supporting 480Gbit/s per port, Juniper claims. Juniper also envisioned the PTX being part of a packet-optical core, with the optical transport piece handled by an ADVA Optical Networking system. (See Juniper OEMs an ADVA Box.) The PTX9000 was supposed to ship by the end of 2012, notes Heavy Reading analyst Sterling Perrin. He's now wondering if Juniper simply decided to stop development of the product -- and whether Juniper has scaled back its ambitions for the PTX. "With the layoffs, it does seem like they have adjusted the PTX to a much more modest function -- LSR," he writes in an email to Light Reading. "If they have shelved the PTX9000, then that would fit into the trend of a very grand PTX story in the beginning that has become more and more narrow as time has gone by." The PTX5000 started shipping in the first quarter of 2012, with Verizon named as a customer in June. (See Juniper Shrinks QFabric, Sells a PTX.) On Monday (Tuesday morning, on the Pacific Rim), Juniper announced Australian provider Optus Administration Pty. Ltd. as a PTX5000 customer. (See Optus Picks Juniper PTX.) For more

— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading