Juniper's MINT offers profitable data

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - Juniper Networks this week is unveiling a plan designed to let service providers profitably address underserved markets without commoditizing their offerings.

Supporting the framework are several new products Juniper will roll out later this month and early next year.

Juniper's concept is called the Model for Integrated Network Transformation (MINT). MINT attempts to let service providers address large and niche markets by scaling their offerings to appeal to consumers, low-end businesses, and mid- to high-end businesses.

But with scale comes commodity pricing and lack of profits. So MINT also proposes a model whereby service providers generate profit through service customization and added value as they scale their services to address markets that are untapped or underaddressed.

"We want it to be a framework for the industry," says Christine Heckart, vice president of marketing for Juniper. Heckart says MINT applies techniques considered "best practices" for voice within the data network industry.

Juniper says it would like MINT to create demand for Juniper products by demonstrating how service providers can derive profitability from data services, especially IP services. Research firm RHK in August showed that while Internet traffic grows at an annual rate of 100%, revenue grows at only 17%.

The MINT framework encompasses basic transport and connectivity at its foundation, and policy and control at its peak. In between are resource segmentation and packet processing. The layers of MINT are interdependent.

The transport and connectivity layer, naturally, encompasses Juniper's edge and core IP routers. The resource segmentation layer suggests creation of a service independent resource pool by using Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) to partition ATM, frame relay, private line, voice, IP and public Internet assets into virtual overlays.

The IP overlays would support the scale to address lucrative underserved markets, Juniper says, while the consolidated overlays - ATM/frame, private, voice and others - would collapse "conventional" services for more mainstream markets.

The packet-processing layer would filter, prioritize, encrypt and classify packets according to user need, and the policy and control layer would map users to customized services and to back-office accounting and billing applications. For example, a user request for on-demand video would activate increased bandwidth and packet priority, Juniper says, while generating the associated billing records.

Products associated with the MINT framework include:

• A second generation of ATM physical interface cards (PIC) for Juniper M-series and T-series routers, and IPv6 capabilities for the vendor's ERX edge router.
• IPv6 VPN and transparent LAN support on the routers.
• New PICs with a processor dedicated to packet queuing.
• Integration of third-party operations support system applications with Juniper's SDX policy manager.

The so-called ATM2 PICs include one- and two-port OC-12 and two-port OC-3 interfaces. They perform per virtual circuit/virtual path shaping and rate limiting, queuing and classification features such as weighted round robin and random early discard, and Layer 2 to Layer 3 priority mapping across MPLS backbones.