Features and Benefits
MPLS
An example of technical advancement and ongoing standards development that is driving the evolution of Ethernet in the service provider edge can be found in Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology. MPLS has traditionally been found in network backbones to provide traffic engineering and allow the carriage of a wide range of Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic such as IP, Frame Relay and ATM. Extending MPLS to the Ethernet edge brings benefits such as restoration techniques, Operations, Administration
&Management (OA&M) diagnostic capabilities and QoS support for services that are sensitive to delay and delay variation. As an industry leader in the development and deployment of MPLS, Juniper Networks leads the way in making it possible for service providers to bring to market network architectures and services based on MPLS. The MX960 provides a wide range of MPLS features and functionality powered by the JUNOS operating system. The feature richness of JUNOS provides the MX960 an advantage over other operating systems that are either too immature to support the required MPLS feature breadth or architected in a monolithic fashion, making them too complicated or unwieldy to efficiently manage. Additionally, the MX960 is designed to lead the industry in the following areas:
•Interface Scalability—as the largest form factor in the MX-series, the MX960 chassis provides up to 12 slots that can be populated with up to 480 ports of Gigabit Ethernet or up to 48 10 GE ports.
•Advanced Packet Processing Performance—each slot provides line-rate 40 Gbps packet forwarding.
•Service Flexibility—Juniper is an industry leader in both
MPLS and VPLS, and the new MX960 Ethernet Services Router leverages the JUNOS operating system that is powering over
27,000 Juniper M-series routers currently deployed in over 600 service provider networks worldwide. The field-proven JUNOS provides the MX960 feature richness, stability, and service breadth not typically found in Carrier Ethernet platforms.
•Advanced QoS—the MX-series features superior QoS at the interface level, which improves port density, can reduce costs and enables service providers to ensure that services receive the appropriate level of service regardless of traffic conditions. This enables providers to offer a variety of Layer 2 and Layer 3 services over Ethernet, such as VLAN/transparent LAN, L2/L3 VPNs, voice over IP and video over IP, with guaranteed service level agreements (SLAs).
•Simple, Non-Disruptive Deployment—because the new
MX-series utilizes the same JUNOS operating system that the world’s largest service providers have relied on for years, service providers can immediately take advantage of the latest Ethernet technology without the cost and risks associated with introducing a new operating system to the network. Customers’ familiarity, knowledge and integration of JUNOS in existing back-office systems allows them to drive down capital expenditure costs while rapidly rolling out Ethernet access networks and services.
The MX-series Extends JUNOS in the Network
JUNOS is a world-class operating system with proven stability coupled with industrial-strength routing protocols, flexible policy language and leading MPLS implementation. When building your Ethernet-centric infrastructure, JUNOS can be a tremendous asset as a flexible and reliable operating system.
JUNOS Internet software runs on Juniper Networks MX-, M-, T-, and J-series routers. JUNOS software—the first routing operating system developed specifically for the Internet—is especially designed for the large production networks typically supported by service providers. JUNOS has been designed to configure the routing protocols that run on the MX960 and the properties of its interfaces. After a software configuration is activated, JUNOS has been designed to monitor the protocol traffic passing through the MX-series and to troubleshoot protocol and network connectivity problems.
JUNOS software runs on the Routing Engine and consists of processes that:
•Support Internet routing protocols
•Control the MX-series interfaces
•Control the routing of each MX-series chassis
•Provide an interface for system management
JUNOS full suite of industrial-strength routing protocols, flexible policy language, and leading MPLS implementation efficiently scales to large numbers of network interfaces and routes.
MX960 VPNs
JUNOS supports several types of VPNs:
•Layer 2 VPNs—linking a set of sites sharing common routing information, and whose connectivity is controlled by a collection of policies. A Layer 2 VPN is not aware of routes within a customer’s network. It simply provides private links between
a customer’s sites over the service provider’s existing public
Internet backbone.
•Layer 3 VPNs—linking a set of sites that share common routing information, and whose connectivity is controlled by a collection of policies. A Layer 3 VPN is aware of routes within a customer’s network, requiring more configurations on the part of the service provider than a Layer 2 VPN. The sites that make up a Layer
3 VPN are connected over a service provider’s existing public
Internet backbone.
•Interprovider VPNs—supplying connectivity between two VPNs in separate autonomous systems (ASs), this functionality could be used by a VPN customer with connections to various ISPs, or different connections to the same ISP in various geographic regions.
•Carrier-of-CarrierVPNs—allowing a VPN service provider to supply VPN service to a customer who is also a service provider.
The latter service provider supplies Internet or VPN service to the end customer.
