Juniper Networks unveils 5G-ready routing platform

Juniper Networks has announced plans to launch a 5G and IoT ready routing platform to help operators, cloud providers and enterprise customers manage the growing complexity of next-generation service delivery.

The MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform will support extensive feature programmability, as well as hardware accelerated 5G control and user plane separation (CUPS) functionality.

The 3GPP CUPS standard is designed to allow customers to separate the evolved packet core user plane and control plane to allow operators to scale each independently as needed.

Juniper’s new Penta Silicon chipset will power the new platform. The company said the new chipset supports both MACsec and an IPsec cryptography engine, and can originate and terminate thousands of IPSec sessions without sacrificing performance.

According to Juniper Networks chief product officer Manoj Leelanivas, research from the company found that operators consider the cost and complexity of orchestrating a distributed network to be among the top challenges associated with being able to offer 5G and other next-generation network services.

“Cloud is eating the world, 5G is ramping up, IoT is presenting a host of new challenges and security teams simply can’t keep up with the sheer volume of cyber attacks on today’s network,” Leelanivas said.

“One thing service providers should not have to worry about among all this is the unknown of what lies ahead. That’s why we’ve continued innovating our flagship MX platform to deliver more speed, flexibility, programmability and security capabilities, giving our customers the peace of mind they need as a variety of demands continue to put pressure on the network.”

The first router products powered by the new platform are expected to launch during the second half of the year.