lantimes.com
Mystery product gets big bucks
We've all heard about equipment vendors that are producing standard IP switching, Cisco
Systems Inc.'s tag switching, and high-speed routing products as potential ways for ISPs
(Internet service providers) to handle the ever-increasing amounts of data and multimedia
traffic being carried across the Internet. The latest player in the backbone equipment fray is
Juniper Networks Inc., a Silicon Valley startup with no shipping products but plenty of big-name backing.
Last month Juniper received $40 million in equity financing from 3Com Corp., Ericsson Inc., Newbridge Networks Inc., Northern
Telecom Inc., Siemens AG, and UUNET Technologies Inc. to develop an as-yet-undisclosed device the company hails as the
next generation of routers and switches at the core of the Internet. The startup's total financing to date is $56 million.
Although it is not yet known whether the Juniper equipment is based on IP switching, tag switching, or just plain magic,
company officials are promising that the device will have the capability of tracking and scaling to the growth of capacity on the
fiber-optic networks used by Internet backbone providers. The product is rumored to handle speeds in excess of 100Gbps and
will compete against Cisco's Big Fast Router (BFR) and Digital Equipment Corp.'s GigaSwitch.
"The ultimate result will be much greater bandwidth and responsiveness to the Internet user," said Juniper spokesman Joe
Furgerson in Mountain View, Calif.
Contact Juniper at (650) 526-8000; juniper.net. |
