Telecoms giant Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled a new set of internet core routers and has outlined a new vision of what the ‘heart of the internet should be’. The new core routers deliver five times the capacity of competing routers, it claims.
In what it says will enable the ‘service provider core network’, the 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System) allows network operators to embrace the rapid adoption of ‘cloud’ applications, the explosion in video traffic and the widespread use of smartphones and tablets and prepare the core of their networks for the next decade of growth.
The 7950 XRS-40 supports 32 terabits per second (Tbps) capacity and 160 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single system, which is five times the density of today’s core routers. Using the latest techniques in silicon and system design, the 7950 XRS also slashes power consumption by more than 66pc compared to typical core routers.
Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Division, said: “With the 7950 XRS we are revolutionising the network core, just as we did over the past 10 years at the network edge with service routing. Core networks are evolving at an unbelievable pace, with IP backbones and ‘metro’ cores facing a host of new requirements.
“The core router platform of the future needs to be able to efficiently deliver enormous capacity, and do so without sacrificing the intelligence and capabilities needed to support an expanding variety of content and applications. With the 7950 XRS family, service providers need not compromise on any of these dimensions,” Alwan added.
