Juniper announces energy-efficient core router

Juniper Networks on Monday launched the TX Matrix Plus, a virtualising routing system that the company claims is one of the most efficient on the market.

The company claims it can lower the total cost of ownership of networks as it can process up to 25 percent more routing capacity "in half the footprint of other routers and with up to 40 percent less power consumption".

The TX Matrix Plus can also support up to 25Tbps of network capacity by "integrating up to 16 T1600s into a single multi-chassis routing node", the company said in its statement. The TX Matrix Plus multi-chassis router can be managed as a single, unified router, or combined with the JCS 1200 so core routers can be virtualised. The T1600, launched in 2007, can manage up to 1.6Tbps, while the JCS (Juniper Control System) 1200, launched in 2008, maintains routing rules and control separately from the routing hardware itself.

"The multi-chassis capability, the ability to put a number of T1600s into one unit, is key," said Juniper's head of marketing, David Noguer Bau. "This means organisations can scale the router by adding more T1600s so it gives them a migration path."

Bau told ZDNet UK that another feature was the compactness of the system. "You can get the same amount of networking capability in half the physical size and using half the power," he claimed. "Where other companies would need to use 25 racks, with our solution you would only need 10."

Redundancy and failover was not a factor with the system, said Bau, because customers would build their systems with multiple chassis and software that could handle failover. Bau said the main competition for the router was Cisco. "Our strategy is to be more competitive with our technology," Bau said.

The TX Matrix Plus price will starts at $300,000 ((£205,000) and will be available in the third quarter of this year.