Nokia says that as service providers look to scale their networks, they will not only need greater speed, but greater visibility via SDN-based software elements inside its routing platforms.
Enter the insight-driven automated and high-performance networking concept.
Insight-driven automated high-performance networking is a new model driven by massive data analytics to convert information into insight and SDN to drive change in real time to deliver the best experience, protect from security threats and maximize asset utilization.
Steve Vogelsang, CTO for Nokia’s IP and optical business, told FierceTelecom this concept will give service providers a clear picture of service and network performance.
“Because you can’t really predict what’s happening in the network, you need to instrument the network with as much information as possible,” Vogelsang said. “You then run it through an analytics system to turn it into insights, understand what’s going on in the network, application performance and then have fine grain control in the network so you can drive those insights to re optimize and secure the network.”
Heading to petabit
As part of Nokia’s vision, the vendor has introduced two new platforms: the 7750 Service Router (SR)-s and the 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS)-XC.
The Nokia 7750 Service Router (SR)-s series provides support for 144 Tbps configuration in a single shelf.
As a petabit-class router, the 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS)-XC scales to 0.576 petabits a single system through chassis extension, without requiring separate switching shelves.
The new Nokia platforms are the industry’s first capable of delivering terabit IP flows, which it says is a 10x improvement over the existing 100 Gbps links used to construct the Internet backbone.
“Our SRS series will be the highest capacity router in the market with two to three times the capacity of our nearest competitors at 144 Tbps and the ability to scale higher in the future,” Vogelsang said.
Serving as the heart of the new platforms is the 2.5 Tbps FP4 multi-terabit network processor silicon. The new silicon powers the SR-s platforms with a 144 Tbps configuration, in a system designed to scale to 288 Tbps capacity.
“In building this silicon we saw this need to have not only the throughput, but to have intelligence and control,” Vogelsang said. “The path we saw to deliver that in the best of both worlds was to leverage a number of new silicon technologies that have just entered the market.”
Specifically, Nokia exploited new packaging technology that allows them in a single package to integrate multiple chips. Nokia is using that to integrate its own intelligent memory in a single package that it says is six times the performance of its previous FP3 system.
Nokia’s FP4 is also offering customers an upgrade path for existing platforms, including the 7750 SR through the 7950.
“It will be able to deliver 2 to 6 times performance in those existing chassis,” Vogelsang. “Today, our flagship 7950 router is a 32 Tbps router at its maximum configuration and with the new silicon it increases the two shelf system from 16 Tbps each to 96 Tbps.”
Vogelsang added that customers can “expand the 7950 from 2 chassis to 6 chassis without the need for any special switching cell.”
Focus on security
Scaling speed is only one part of the vision Nokia is touting. The new series can also address growing security threats.
Combining packet intelligence and control technology in the FP4 with Nokia’s Deepfield IP network analytics solution and c SDN portfolio maximizes efficiency and opportunity while minimizing and mitigating security threats.
This includes DDoS attacks, which impact productivity and commerce and are growing in number and impact each year. According to Deloitte Global’s TMT predictions, over 10 million attacks are expected in 2017.
“With the FP4 silicon, we can install policies that look fairly deep into the packet and block large volumetric DDoS traffic,” Vogelsang said. “We can take the high level of traffic at the network edge and some of the lower volume traffic we would send back to a scrubbing center.”