Avici scales down the core

Avici Systems this week unveiled its smallest core router yet, a device intended to address the needs of carriers expanding their IP backbones to smaller sites.

The vendor rolled out the Quarter-rack Scalable Router (QSR), a 10-slot, 80G bit/sec to 100G bit/sec router that provides 10 interfaces at 10G bit/sec in one-fourth of a telco rack. The density and footprint of the QSR are designed to appeal to service providers requiring core router performance with minimal space and power consumption.

Tier 2 carrier points-of-presence (POP) and international carriers fit that profile, according to Avici.

"In the olden days it seemed all you needed was one, big core router," says Kevin Mitchell, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. "Now it seems that all the players have a portfolio, because as service providers build out their backbone, it's not a one-size-fits-all."

The QSR sports the same distributed architecture as Avici's Terabit Switch Router (TSR) and Stackable Switch Router (SSR), and shares all modules and software with the bigger, older routers. The QSR also features Avici's Non-Stop Routing technology for 99.999% reliability, a feature, Avici claims, that obviates the need to deploy a redundant router to back up the primary unit in case of failure.

NSR saves all pertinent routing state on a backup route controller. Connectivity and "liveness" with peers is maintained while route controller failover is executed, Avici says.

The NSR route controller, meanwhile, is powered by a 867-MHz PowerPC processor. It sports 2G bytes of memory, supports up to 3 million BGP routes and performs self-monitoring, or internal consistency checking.

Avici also rolled out some line cards for use with the QSR. They include a single-port OC-192c module that only takes up one chassis slot, a four-port OC-48c module, and a single-port 10G bit/sec Ethernet line card.

The line cards enable the QSR to support up to 38 OC-192c - or 10G bit/sec Ethernet - ports, and 152 OC-48s per seven-foot rack when that configuration employs two route controllers. This compares to 16 OC-192s, 16 ports of 10G bit/sec Ethernet and 64 OC-48s per rack for Juniper's M-160, and 20 OC-192s and 80 OC-48s for Cisco's 12406.

The QSR chassis, software, NSR route controller, and OC-192c and four-port OC-48c line cards ship this quarter. The 10 Gigabit Ethernet line card will ship in the first quarter of 2003.

Pricing for a QSR starts at about $100,000 for chassis and line cards, Avici says.

Analysts say Avici's challenge with the QSR is not so much a technological one as it is the general state of the core router market. Cisco and Juniper still dominate the market with a combined share greater than 90%, and the market overall has been in decline of late.

Avici's core router market share is between 2% and 3%. Also, Alcatel is entering the market with a non-stop router, as well as deep pockets and an established relationship with most major carriers.

Avici has two customers - AT&T and Qwest - that account for 80% of the company's revenue.