From lightreading and Yankee Group - Something to think about.
Yankee Group Sees 'Core Switching'
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BOSTON -- The Yankee Group surveyed 20 carriers on the current state of core routing, future requirements, and the evolution of IP architectures. Results are presented in the new Report entitled "Core Routing: Challengers and Challenges to the Status Quo."
Carriers' efforts to meet increased demand are starting to pay off, and they have begun to examine their network architectures. Nancee Ruzicka, program manager for the Yankee Group's Carrier Convergence Infrastructure research and consulting practice, states in the Report, "Router configurations in the core are about to collapse under their own weight. Too many boxes and too many vulnerable, revenue-reducing connections means that the current approach to expansion -- adding another box -- will be neither sufficient nor economical in the next three to four years." Referring to existing solutions, she adds, "Improved density and scalability are not enough to support the creation of capacity for long-term network demand."
Ruzicka contends that the core of the network requires integrated switching platforms that replace individual systems currently used for switching of TDM, ATM, IP, and wavelengths. "Until there is a core device that can switch multiple types of traffic onto an IP over optical core, carriers will not be able to collapse the number of overlays that they are required to operate and maintain." While core routers need to be more reliable and scalable, carrier requirements are evolving beyond what existing platforms will be able to provide.
The Yankee Group |
