Juniper Networks achieves industry milestone for longest 400GbE deployment

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 22, 2019 -- Juniper Networks, a leader in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced it has achieved an industry-first with the completion of a successful field trial delivering 400Gbps Ethernet live traffic over 1,300 miles. The trial was conducted in conjunction with SCinet, the Supercomputing 2019 Conference's high-capacity network. SCinet used Juniper’s PTX10003 Packet Transport Router to deliver unprecedented capacity, flexibility and programmability.

This field trial marks an important step toward progressing the transition to 400GbE network capacity, which is vital to support bandwidth demands from advanced high-performance computing, next-generation cloud data center architectures, emerging 5G networks, augmented and virtual reality and 4K video production and distribution. The trial, held the week of November 18, 2019, was conducted between Denver and Chicago, using Juniper’s PTX10003, the industry’s first fixed-configuration core router to support 400GbE.

The 400GbE link was part of the 4.22 Terabits of connectivity SCinet provided to the conference. It was made available to researchers working on projects in disciplines, such as High Energy Physics, Radio Astronomy and Human Genome research. Over the coming years, many Research & Education networks will be upgrading their backbones to 400GbE, positioning them to meet the bandwidth demands of Big Science.

Juniper also supplied SC19 with additional networking infrastructure to build SCinet and support the conference, including MX2019 and MX960 routers, QFX switches and SRX4600 firewalls. All infrastructure ran the Junos operating system with the one Junos experience optimized for the modularity, openness and programmability required of the new cloud era in networking.

While service providers, cloud operators and enterprises face increasingly difficult challenges managing exponential traffic growth; Juniper Networks continues to drive innovation that provides unprecedented levels of performance and scalability, as well as high capacity and nonstop routing.

“Researchers increasingly depend on moving massive datasets to supercomputer centers and to the cloud to support collaborative science that can advance breakthroughs in everything from astrophysics to healthcare. Increasing capacity, reducing complexity and increasing automation and self-service capabilities in our networks are critical to their future," said Rob Vietzke, VP of Network Services at Internet2. "Internet2 is delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Juniper and other industry and R&E collaborators to deliver this 1,300 mile 400GE link to the SC community.”

“This field trial represents a significant milestone in realizing the promise of 400GbE’s high-capacity, next-gen networks," said Andy Athreya, Chief Development Officer at Juniper Networks. "Juniper Networks has a long history of leading the industry in fast and simplified networking. By delivering cutting-edge innovations in 400GbE networks, we are laying the foundation for the fastest and most advanced networks in the world.”