Networking Giants Demonstrate 100G Interoperability

Nokia Siemens Networks and Juniper Networks are demonstrating a 100G bps Ethernet interface this week during the OFC/NFOEC 2011 conference in Los Angeles.

The companies recently successfully tested 100G bps interoperability between Nokia’s OTN (Optical Transport Network) and Juniper’s T1600 core router. They conducted the test at Nokia Siemens’ facility in Munich, Germany.

Network building

They now are taking the interoperability display to OFC/NFOEC, which runs from 8 to 11 March.

“Interoperability of router and DWDM network elements is a prerequisite for carriers to build and upgrade their networks in a cost-efficient manner,” Marc Rouanne, head of Nokia Siemens’ Network Systems unit and a member of the company’s executive board, said in a statement. “The demonstration confirms that worldwide carriers and operators can transport high volumes of data over long distances along with ensuring excellent network performance.”

The testing involved Nokia Siemens’ hiT 7300 DWDM [Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing] platform and Juniper’s T1600 router. Right now, Nokia Siemens’ hiT 7300 platforms supports 40GbE interfaces, and company officials said it should start supporting 100GbE by the middle of 2011.

Given the rising IP traffic across their networks and the needs within a company’s campus, businesses and carriers already are beginning to talk about 100 Gigabit Ethernet, even as 10GbE is just starting to become a dominant technology in the data centre, and 40GbE has yet to really take off. That interest will only continue to grow, according to Daniel Hua, senior vice president of Juniper’s Core Business Unit.

“Nokia Siemens Networks is a leader in IP integration with extensive capabilities in optical transport, and this achievement is a testimony of our successful partnership with it,” Hua said in a statement. “We have many 100G customers, who are looking for expanded service and proven long-haul capabilities that are critical to the further adoption of 100G in networks.”

Revenue jump

Analyst firms Dell’Oro Group and IDC recently issued reports saying the Ethernet switch market rebounded strongly in 2010 from the beating it took from the global recession the year before. Dell’Oro said in a report on 1 March that revenue for L2 and L3 switching hit almost $20 billion (£12bn) last year, a 30 percent jump. In addition, the analysts said Juniper was the biggest winner in the surge, and that future growth in the market in the near term will come from 10GbE deployments.

IDC said the worldwide Ethernet switch space grew 28.1 percent in 2010, with more than 1.1 million 10GbE ports shipping in the fourth quarter. IDC analysts also said deployments in data centres and on campuses were accelerating.