* Juniper's new MX line of Ethernet edge aggregation devices
Juniper’s new MX line of Ethernet edge aggregation devices stays true to the company’s contention that Ethernet is an interface, not an architecture – for now.
The MX-Series debuted this week with the MX960, a 14-slot, 960Gbps (480G full duplex) Ethernet switch router intended to steal back some IP edge aggregation router market share lost to Alcatel. Alcatel leapfrogged Juniper to become second to Cisco in share of the IP edge aggregation router market.
But much has been made of the fact that Alcatel – and some market research firms – include Alcatel’s 7450 Ethernet Services Switch, along with the 7750 Services Router, in the IP edge aggregation router tally. Alcatel claims it’s fair to include the 7450 because it is a routing node that supports MPLS, and MPLS is the end game, according to Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel’s IP Business.
So many thought Juniper would counter the 7450 with a Layer 2 Ethernet aggregation switch. The MX960 can do just that; but it’s emerging initially as a full-blown Ethernet router to go squarely up against Alcatel’s 7750.
Down the road – perhaps in the third quarter of 2007 – the MX is expected to take on more traditional Layer 2 Ethernet switching capabilities, such as integrated routing and bridging; Spanning Tree, Rapid Spanning Tree and VLAN-aware Spanning Tree control plane functions; increased VPLS scaling and performance; firewall and QoS extensions for Layer 2 filtering; and Layer 2 statistics and instrumentation, sources say.
So, as an Ethernet aggregation edge router, how does the MX960 stack up against Alcatel’s 7750?
“At over twice the throughput as the Alcatel 7450 and 7750, it will enjoy, depending on the marketing wars to define the capabilities of each product, a temporary superiority,” says Mark Seery, IP infrastructure analyst at Ovum/RHK. “I anticipate that Alcatel will be upgrading the throughput of the 7450 and 7750 in the near future so given that the Juniper MX960 will not be generally available until February 2007, there is the possibility that by the time it is released it will only enjoy a 20% lead (in switching, throughput, 1xGE port capacity, and 10xGE port capacity).”
