Routers appear everywhere

By Jim Duffy
Network World, 06/04/2001

A few other router vendors will make big splashes at SuperComm 2001, focusing on speed, density and resiliency.

Pluris will demonstrate the scalability, virtual trunking and software fault tolerance of its Teraplex 20 terabit router. For scalability, Pluris will show four Teraplex 20 chassis configured as two separate routers connected by an optical backplane 35 feet apart. Pluris deploys an optical-fiber backplane instead of copper to enable physical chassis separated by some distance to be configured as one logical router.

Attendees will also see a Teraplex 20 handling 1,200 access control lists without performance degradation, Pluris claims.

For virtual trunking, Pluris will demonstrate its IP Bond capability for aggregating multiple links into a high-speed logical trunk. Pluris will show a virtual 40G bit/sec OC-768 trunk comprising an aggregate of several lower-speed links.

Pluris claims its Teraplex 20 can support IP Bonds composed of up to 1,000 different speed links of varying framing formats. The company says that 1,000 such IP Bonds can be supported across multiple Teraplex chassis.

Competitive link aggregation techniques from Avici Systems configure a virtual trunk that supports only 16 links at two speeds - OC-48 and OC-192, for example - and a single framing format, Pluris says. Avici says it can combine 64 links at four different speeds - from OC-3 to OC-192 - into a virtual trunk.

Pluris' Teraplex 20 will ship this month. Trials are wrapping up at three carriers, including Global Crossing and Deutsche Telekom.

Also moving from terabits to petabits, Hyperchip will unveil its PBR-1280 petabit Multi-protocol Labeling Switching router. This will be the first time Hyperchip has demonstrated the router outside its labs.

Hyperchip will demonstrate the PBR-1280 using Agilent's OC-192 RouterTester test systems. It will enter customer lab tests in September and ship early next year.