From Electronic Business, a Cahners Business Information publication
eb-mag.com
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RHK analyst Al-Chalabi says both Juniper and Cisco will have to fend off challenges from a new
generation of router companies, including Avici Systems Inc., North Billerica, MA; Pluris Inc.,
Cupertino, CA; IronBridge Networks Inc., Lexington, MA; Charlotte’s Web Networks
Ltd., Andover, MA, and Procket Networks Inc., Milpitas, CA. All are developing routers with
more processing power and scalability, often by expanding the number of available network
connections. Most claim to be developing routers that can process at least a “terabit,” or 1 trillion
bits, of information per second—roughly six times more than Juniper’s M160.
Of those, Avici’s product appears to be the closest to market-ready. The company has completed field trials
of its routers with AT&T and Denver, CO-based Qwest Communications
International Inc., which has agreed to deploy Avici routers in its next-generation optical
network . IronBridge, whose routers are being tested by several potential customers, offers “virtual
routing,” the ability to provide private network services to multiple customers on the same router.
And Procket, while younger than some of the others, is notable for having hired Tony Li, the
celebrated router designer who played a key role in developing Juniper’s original M40, as well as
Cisco’s GSR core routers.
Al-Chalabi isn’t worried about either Juniper’s or
Cisco’s ability to survive the router upstarts’
challenge. But he definitely expects one or more of
the newcomers to carve out a spot. “I think the
market should be able to support multiple players,”
he says. “Juniper would lead you to believe there is
room for only two, but I don’t believe that.”
Lauri Vickers, senior networking analyst with
Scottsdale, AZ-based Cahners In-Stat Group, notes that while several of the new router players
look promising, their much-hyped terabit routers are still more marketing ploy than reality. “True
terabit throughput doesn’t exist at this time,” she says. For now, she says, the Internet router
market remains “a two-horse race” between Juniper and Cisco.
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