Going over the multiservice edge
Published: 24 Feb 2004 15:35 GMT
Tellabs, a maker of traditional circuit-switched gear, last week announced enhancements to the 8800 router, which is based on technology it acquired from start-up Vivace Networks. Like the Juniper M-series, the 8800 was originally designed for the core of a service provider's network. Tellabs now has added support for Ethernet, IP virtual private networks (VPNs), and virtual private LAN (local area network) services to the 8800 product line.
Cisco, which dominates the core router market with more than 70 percent of the market, has taken a similar strategy with its older GSR routers. After the company replaced the original GSR 12000 with bigger, faster core routers, like the 12400 and 12800, it added new software features and interfaces last year to make the GSR 12000 an edge router.
Steve Vogelsang, co-founder of Laurel Networks, a start-up that specialises in multiservice edge routing, said that Juniper and Tellabs had no other choice but to reconfigure core routers for the edge. Juniper, which has a large installed base of customers, couldn't risk alienating customers by introducing a brand-new technology, he said. And it would take Tellabs too long to develop a new multiservice edge product from scratch. Carriers, such as SBC Communications and AT&T, have already solicited proposals from companies making these multiservice products.
"Every major carrier out there is looking at these devices," Vogelsang said. "I think Juniper and Tellabs realised that they had to offer something. I'm sure they feared that without a product marketed specifically for the multiservice edge, they'd be shut out of the sales process."
Hurdles ahead
Nevertheless, converting older core routers for the edge poses substantial challenges.
Core routers came into vogue in the late 1990s. The task for vendors was to build the biggest, fastest router they could. The goal was to eliminate potential traffic jams on the Internet and bulk up capacity for future growth.
By 2000, the telecommunications industry started to sober up, and carriers realised that there was a glut of capacity in their core networks. They pulled back their investments and started focusing on the edge of their networks, where they saw the potential to offer new revenue-generating services. The edge of the telecommunication network has increasingly become important over the last year as carriers begin converging disparate data and voice networks onto a single network using MPLS.
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