WHITE PAPER

A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

Juniper Networks Solutions at the Transport, Control, and Service Planes

Copyright 2010, Juniper Networks, Inc.

WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Forwarding Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Control Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Service Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 About Juniper Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Juniper Networks high-level NGN architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Figure 2: Scalable performance in multiple dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Figure 3: Simple steps to upgrade a T640 to a T1600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Figure 4: T Series versus the competition in capacity, space, and energy efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Figure 5: A decade of energy efficiency improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Figure 6: Shared versus independent control plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Figure 7: The many players in service-aware business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Figure 8: Applications made possible by Juniper Networks products on the three planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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Copyright 2010, Juniper Networks, Inc.

WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

Executive Summary
This paper is essential reading for business decision makers (up to the CxO level) in both service provider and large enterprise environments. The paper describes a unique solution set for the forwarding, control, and service planes of service provider networks, in particular core networks but also edge and large enterprise networks. The paper makes its case with critical points for technical decision makers to consider, as it describes a unique architectural approach wherein the forwarding, control, and service planes of a network are built and scaled independently of each other. All of this can be customized to the degree required by individual providers, their customers, and the services they offer. The products described in this paper are designed to fulfill and integrate the requirements of each layer. Juniper Networks T Series Core Routers, the Juniper Networks JCS1200 Control System, Juniper Networks Junos operating system, and the Partner Solution Development Platform (PSDP) constitute a scalable forwarding plane, control plane, and service plane. Each layer scales independently, yet can be integrated to the appropriate degree needed by the application. For instance, JCS1200 is a control plane option for the T Series, and the software tools from the PSDP can be integrated with primary routing engines or on JCS1200. Furthermore, a PSDP-based network design can be made proprietary and commercially unique, providing differentiation for service provider offerings that has not previously been possible.

Introduction
Network scalability and intelligence are defined and measured across multiple dimensions, and competing telecom products often come in various flavors and combinations of intelligence and scale. Long recognized for its history of network innovation, Juniper Networks pioneered the industrys only open three-layer model of the NextGeneration Network (NGN) architecture, where network scalability and intelligence are based upon independent and autonomous planes: Forwarding (packet transport) Control (user and service policies) Services (complex packet manipulation)

JUNIPER NETWORKS NGN VISION Service

OPEN

Control
OPEN

Forwarding

Figure 1: Juniper Networks high-level NGN architecture

Unique and innovative in its simplicity, Junipers NGN model is based on the idea that all three planes are independent and can be scaled at will. Implementers can forego the legacy practice of dealing with discrete, nonintegrated products with fixed intelligence-to-scale ratios, and can proceed quickly to the ultimate goalnetwork efficiency, profitability, and adaptability. This novel NGN principle allows the core network design to stay relevant regardless of its starting point. Another key innovation is the open nature of inter-layer interfaces. Think of a multiservice network as a threedimensional network stack in the following dimensions: Forwarding (how you move the bits) Control (how you direct the bits) Software/service (how you monetize the bits)
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WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

Unlike competing NGN designs, the Juniper Networks architecture does not lock providers into fixed rule sets based on what they first need to build. An initial customer focus on forwarding capacity, control plane scaling, or rudimentary services can be quickly shifted or expanded in response to changing business conditions. Juniper Networks T Series Core Routers and Juniper Networks TX Matrix products constitute a scalable forwarding plane, while JCS1200, and Junos OS create the scalable control plane. Services hardware and software support the service planeall operating and scaling independently. This three-dimensional architecture (Figure 2) is augmented with the Partner Solution Development Platform (PSDP), which provides a complete toolset for creating custom and innovative applications, and servicing emerging business models. Even more importantly, a PSDP-based network design can be made proprietary and commercially unique.

Control: JCS1200

Forwarding: T1600

Figure 2: Scalable performance in multiple dimensions

Forwarding Plane
In the forwarding plane, traffic growth is the key driver of the core router market. As the global economy becomes increasingly networked and dependent upon the communications infrastructure, traffic rates continue to balloongrowing 70 to 80 percent a year by most estimatesand high-density core routing remains critical to a next-generation build-out. With both Telcos and multiple service operators (MSOs) beginning the migration to video delivery solutions, there will be a continued emphasis on higher capacity and more intelligent core and edge router deployments. From a technology perspective, progress in core routing means keeping up with traffic growth, and having a plan to continue scaling the core. Maximizing interface density is key to this process, and provides a practical measure of engineering design. Greater density, combined with increasing slot capacity, means a similar-sized chassis can handle more throughput; service providers can thus more easily plan their growth without the concern of running out of power or space. In addition to improved interface density, a multi-chassis architecture is the second strategy to scaling core routing platforms. While most service providers prefer to follow the technology curve and upgrade as soon as the next generation of routers comes along (mainly because of improved efficiencies such as higher capacity, better footprint, and lower power), Junipers multi-chassis solution allows providers to grow node capacity either to bridge between generations, or to build multi-terabit nodes. Another requirement for forwarding infrastructure is high availability. For example, it is important that hardware and software upgrades can be completed in-service with no disruption in the network, allowing services providers to add capacity incrementally with growth in bandwidth demands. The following diagram shows the unique simplicity of the in-service upgrade of a Juniper Networks T640 Core Router to a Juniper Networks T1600 Core Router.

Se

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Copyright 2010, Juniper Networks, Inc.

WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

3. Swap Face Panel 2. Swap Switch Interface Boards

Five SIBs per chassis, can run on four Disable a SIB, swap it, and re-enable Repeat four times

1. Swap Power Entr y Modules

Two PEM per chassis but system can run on one Disable, power off rst PEM, swap it, and turn the power back on

Figure 3: Simple steps to upgrade a T640 to a T1600

Service providers can upgrade existing T640 routers to T1600 without disrupting service or changing customerfacing interfaces; both platforms operate the same consistent Junos OS, and there is no operational impact. The result is a gain of over 200 percent in throughput with only 40 percent more power and no loss of service. The approximate time for this upgrade is 90 minutes and the factual energy efficiency improvement (normalized to payload) is over 30 percent. Juniper Networks T1600 Core Router, the highest density core router on the market, currently supports 1.6 Tbps in a half-rack form factor, with 100 Gbps per slot. State-of-the-art programmable ASICs deliver the most sophisticated packet processing in the market today, highly granular quality of service (QoS), and hundreds of thousands of filtering operations at highest line rates. Figure 4 illustrates Junipers market lead in capacity, space, and power efficiency.

7 Ft Custom Rack 10,000 Watts 1.6 Terabit 1.28 Terabit 5,000 Watts

25% More Capacity

50% Smaller

50% Less Power

Figure 4: T Series versus the competition in capacity, space, and energy efficiency

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WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

This unmatched degree of efficiency is attained by Junipers state-of-the-art, in-house, silicon development process and industry-leading software design. The importance of this work is best highlighted as the ability to maintain flat operational expenses in spite of rising energy costs and increasing capacities and feature sets. Today, Juniper Networks is shipping its third generation forwarding-plane ASIC, and is consistently surpassing the competition with every design iteration (Figure 5).
170.0 160.0 150.0 140.0 130.0 120.0 1 st Generation 2 nd Generation 3 rd Generation

163

EER (Gbit/s/KW)

110.0 100.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0

Slot System ASIC Power

3 Gbps 40 Gpbs 180 nm 1.5 KW

Slot System ASIC Power

3 Gbps 40 Gpbs 180 nm 1.5 KW

Slot System ASIC Power

3 Gbps 40 Gpbs 180 nm 1.5 KW

71 Competition

13

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Figure 5: A decade of energy efficiency improvements

Control Plane
As mentioned earlier, the forwarding capacity of routers continues to increase at a very fast pacewith single chassis routers now in the terabit range. However, when product comparisons focus only on forwarding capacity, the importance of the control plane is often overlooked. Yet a routers control plane must scale to accommodate evergrowing routing and forwarding tables, service tunnels, virtual networks, and other information related to network construction and its optimal usage. The importance of control plane scale magnifies in modern converged infrastructure. Service providers are called upon to deliver innovative capabilities to multiple customer segments. Delivering varied services concurrently across a converged IP/MPLS infrastructure means that any individual service may contend for a fixed amount of control plane capacity on any individual router. Enabling an infrastructures control plane to scale independently from its forwarding capacity eliminates this restriction, and provides a control plane multiplicity (separate control plane per service) that enables services, virtualized networks, and forwarding capacity to all grow separately. This greatly increases flexibility and sharply reduces risk for service providers, and thus represents the next logical step in the evolution of routing technology. In essence, this concept of virtual service networks delivers on the promise of network convergence by decoupling services from the infrastructure that provisions them. Figure 6 illustrates the contrast between the use of a shared and an independent control plane. By separating tight coupling between the control and forwarding planes of a router, Juniper allows each to have new degrees of freedom to scale and innovate. This provides ultimate flexibility in a network build-out. Service providers can now scale customers, sessions, and services on the one hand, and traffic on the other, and neither control nor traffic scaling will be dependent on the other.

Copyright 2010, Juniper Networks, Inc.

WHITE PAPER - A Scalable and Intelligent Packet Core Infrastructure

Shared
SVC 1 SVC 2 SVC 3 SVC n SVC 1

Independent
SVC 2 SVC 3 SVC n

Control Plane Forwarding Plane

Router Stability Processing Requirements

CP1

CP2

CP3

CPn

Juniper Control System

Forwarding Plane
Router Scale Stability

Scale Processing Requirements SVC 1 SVC 2 SVC 3 SVC n SVC 1 SVC 2 SVC 3 SVC n

Figure 6: Shared versus independent control plane

With a legacy shared control plane design, as new services are added, the processing requirements increase and the likelihood of one service affecting another also increases; therefore, the overall stability of the system, and hence the service network, may be affected. For instance, if you have an IP VPN service, a virtual private LAN service (VPLS), and an Internet service running on the same router, the routing tables, service tunnels, and other logical circuits are scaled together and at some point will combine to reach limits that each would not reach alone. Another key limitation of the legacy control plane design is the sheer speed of the service rollouts (or the lack thereof). When introducing new services in a shared control plane environment, one needs to perform careful compound scaling and regression testingin both the lab and in the fieldto determine how services are affecting each other. In practice, this is rarely feasible, as the existing services (and associated revenue) cannot be put at risk. As a result, legacy networks tend to grow with overlays, where new services are rolled out in separate subnets and each adds new hardware. In a large service provider environment, even personnel can be specialized in a single service type. This model carries a high capital and operational cost. With an independent control planesuch as Juniper Networks JCS1200 Control Systemassigned to each service (or groups of services), the risk in rolling out a new service is greatly diminished. The scaling and stability constraints of any individual service do not affect the others, and the processing requirements remain stable.

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Service Plane
With the advent of content, application, and handset providersall providing services and traffic that traverse backbonesservice providers need to negotiate on technical and business levels to capture value from the tidal wave of traffic that is washing over the core from the edge. Service-aware business models are still evolving in the IP world, and Figure 7 depicts the complex interactions between the different players.
Handset Provider Application Provider

Infrastructure Vendor

Service Provider

End-User

Content Provider Figure 7: The many players in service-aware business models

The requirements of an increasingly disparate and global marketplace are creating pressure for greater network innovation and a much deeper integration between applications and the network. As the economic pressure to quickly deliver new products and services grows, business innovation is evolving from traditional transport-oriented networks to highly integrated solutions requiring deep packet manipulation. Traditionally, complex packet processing has relied on discrete (nonintegrated) hardware infrastructure, which prevented economical and flexible scaling. In addition, the level of expertise of conventional equipment vendors in creating and enabling new deep packet services, (targeted marketing, customer profiling, real-time virus protection, and many others) has been traditionally lower than that of independent solution providers. Both of these problems are addressed in Juniper Networks unified NGN infrastructure. Not only is the services plane fully integrated within the core routers to allow for flexible and economical scaling, but it can also be controlled from third-party applications, thus combining best-in-class silicon with the subject-specific expertise of independent solution developers. Fully decoupled from forwarding and control planes, the services infrastructure can be designed and scaled to specific blueprints of custom network design. Created to stimulate this cooperative model, Juniper Networks Partner Solution Development Platform (PSDP) has many components to drive innovation on the service plane and to implement these new business models. The PSDP offers a powerful set of resources that include a software development kit (SDK) with intelligent and secure interfaces to Junos OS functions on both the control and data planes. These tools provide customers and partners with greater choice and control in designing, developing, and deploying specialized applications for the network. The following table lists some of the tools at each layer of the model that will provide the basis for exciting nextgeneration applications.

Table 1: Business Evolution Tools on the Service, Control, and Forwarding Planes
APPLICATION/SERVICE PLANE
Path Computation Content Insertion Content Optimization

CONTROL AND POLICY PLANE

IP/MPLS Customer Proles Policy Enforcement

FORWARDING PLANE
Dynamic Filters Routing and Switching Active Services Engines Sampling Engines

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Conclusion
Juniper Networks has pioneered a three-layer model of the Next-Generation Network (NGN) architecture, where network scalability and intelligence are based upon independent and orthogonal planes: Forwarding (packet transport), Control (user and service policies), and Services (complex packet manipulation). The products and solutions that are mapped to these planes support many applications, as illustrated in the following figure.

Control: JCS1200

MPLS core HD video multicast at scale Network consolidation (collapsed POP architectures)

Forwarding: T1600

Se

Service separation (equal access) Accelerated service rollout High capacity route reectors Service-aware SLA monitoring Real-time ad insertion Access control Path computation

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Many more applications are enabled by this sophisticated toolset. These include dynamic path computation, video monitoring, real-time engineering of service tunnels, automated service-level agreement (SLA) monitoring, and content insertion/optimization, as well as proprietary control plane applications such as load-based and audiencebased routing protocols or content-driven routing schemes at terabit speeds. In many cases, the requirements and expertise of the individual service provider dictate the possibilities. Junipers leadership in the NGN core enables service providers to meet their emerging business requirements by creating intelligent networks that can scale independently across multiple dimensions. Junipers unique architectural choices enable service providers to rapidly expand their offerings, and to reduce capital and operating expenditures while creating more opportunities to increase top-line growth. A network built around the T Series and the JCS1200 control plane lays a foundation to support virtual service networks that decouple services from infrastructure, allowing each to grow at their appropriate rate. The PSDP adds a third dimension of scaling in the service plane, and enables providers to create new applications that monetize the network. This architectural vision, along with Junipers long history of delivering best-in-class infrastructure, is the reason why there are over 4500 T Series Core Routers deployed in over 200 networks worldwide, and why T1600 is being adopted at a rate that is four times that of the competition.

PS

DP

Figure 8: Applications made possible by Juniper Networks products on the three planes

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References
Applications for an Independent Control Plane: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/app-notes/3500134-en.pdf Control Plane Scaling and Router Virtualization: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/whitepapers/2000261-en.pdf Efficient Scaling for Multiservice Networks: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/whitepapers/2000207-en.pdf Energy Efficiency for Network Equipment: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/whitepapers/2000284-en.pdf Multicast Architectures in Crossbar-Based Routers: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/whitepapers/2000281-en.pdf Network Operating System Evolution: http://www.juniper.net/us/en/local/pdf/whitepapers/2000264-en.pdf

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net.

Corporate and Sales Headquarters Juniper Networks, Inc. 1194 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA Phone: 888.JUNIPER (888.586.4737) or 408.745.2000 Fax: 408.745.2100 www.juniper.net

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Copyright 2010 Juniper Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Junos, NetScreen, and ScreenOS are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners. Juniper Networks assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. Juniper Networks reserves the right to change, modify, transfer, or otherwise revise this publication without notice. 2000294-002-EN Oct 2010 Printed on recycled paper