Juniper insists all is well with OC-192
Reports persist that packet-ordering problem has some users concerned.
 
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Reports continue to swirl that service providers are having trouble with Juniper's OC-192 Internet router modules.
The alleged problem is a packet-ordering snag when data flows enter the card. Incoming packets are directed to four processors, and when the flow is reconstructed the packets can be out of sequence, according to participants on a Juniper mailing list and sources who have contacted Network World responding to a story on the alleged problem.
A few respondents say Level 3 returned modules to Juniper because the packet ordering situation was disrupting the carrier's voice-over-IP service. Level 3 says it does not comment on relationships with vendors and that its 3Voice voice-over-IP service is problem-free.
A participant on the Juniper mailing list says the situation can occur with packets of different sizes - a smaller packet can be processed faster than a larger one and incorrectly positioned in front of the larger packet when the flow is reconstructed.
The participant, whose e-mail domain is Claranet, a British ISP, says this can happen with flows exceeding 300M byte/sec. But flows of that nature are rare in normal ISP networks, he adds.
Juniper questions problems
Juniper again says there's nothing wrong with its OC-192 modules, and that reports of Level 3 returning Juniper's blades are not true. But the company acknowledges its M-160 router, within which the OC-192 blades run, can reorder packets under specific conditions.
However, Carl Showalter, Juniper's vice president of marketing, says this is not an unusual condition, and it has not affected customer buying decisions.
A problem could upset the momentum Juniper has gained of late in Internet core routing. The 5-year-old upstart continues to gain market share at Cisco's expense, according to Dell'Oro Group.
Cisco's share of the market for Internet core routers has been declining this year, although the overall market has continued to grow quickly. Worldwide revenue for Internet core routers was $680.6 million in the third quarter, up from $503 million in the second quarter and $372.9 million in the first quarter.
Cisco is confident it can regain momentum when it ships its OC-192 blades for the 12000 GSR Internet router in the first quarter of next year.
"More important than market share is customer intimacy at Tier 1 [service providers]," says Kevin Kennedy, senior vice president of Cisco's Service Provider line of business. "We have to re-endear ourselves to those accounts."
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