• HOME
• COVER STORY
• CASE STUDY
• TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

We are proud to announce the availability of the SE1200, in our family of SmartEdge product line. The SmartEdge 1200 Multi-Service Edge Router (MSER) is story of innovation. It is a technologically advanced platform specifically designed to address the requirements of the new and upcoming applications that are expected to become major points of revenue generation for service providers. Examples of these applications are Triple Play (with emphasis on HD-TV), Mega-bit Mobility, and Broadband Business VPN. These applications will blur the line between mobility and fixed presence and will have a profound effect on social connectivity as they become available. Whether at home, in the office, or on the road, it will be easier to video-conference, easier to find people and stay connected, and easier to collaborate. Successful delivery of these services requires an infrastructure to provide a high level of service and quality of experience to the users. Essentially, video now has to have the same quality that voice has set as a benchmark. The SmartEdge 1200 is the platform that will pave the way for transforming the way operators will design and upgrade their networks for these applications, with video and mobility dominating the underlying requirements.

The SmartEdge (SE) line of carrier-class products consolidates and simplifies the edge of the service provider’s network by converging Ethernet Aggregation, B-RAS and IP/MPLS PE functionalities on to one compact platform. The SE1200’s massive scalability, high availability and a multitude of required software features enable building and managing networks that overcome the technical barriers of the demanding emerging applications. Both the routing/controller card and the line cards have been revamped with new ASICs that provide the necessary power for the new applications. The Redback R&D team designed this new, state-of-the-art hardware which enables the SmartEdge platform to take a leap in performance and throughput while keeping the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) at market-competitive levels.

The technological breakthroughs that have been achieved by Redback’s R&D team in the design and architecture SmartEdge 1200 eliminates the barriers in building a converged network. Specifically, the edge of the network must be capable of aggregating multiple access technologies, manage subscribers (mobile or otherwise) and enable the operator to offer advanced, new lucrative applications, such as megabit mobility, broadband mobile multimedia, and IP-HDTV. The SE1200 capabilities easily meet these requirements as it has established a new benchmark for the edge of operator’s network, economically and technologically. The SE1200 provides the switching capacity, and throughput that is order of magnitude higher than its predecessor (SE800). A single SE1200 is capable of providing 480Gbps switching capacity.

Building their networks with the SE1200, operators can provide revenue-generating services while exceeding the expectations of their target customers. The carrier is now able to provide services with a business model that will set it apart from competitors. Redback provides the necessary management tools to easily manage services by the operators or their customers. Furthermore, the SmartEdge features have been expanded to address additional requirements in security, application identification via deep packet inspection, firewall, URL filtering, and Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System (IDS/IPS). The introduction of these new advanced services will enable the operator to guard its network and services via stringent security features right at the edge and before allowing malicious packets to enter the network core. Identification of various P2P applications enables the operator (or its customer, e.g., a corporation) to automatically adjust the network resources (reduce bandwidth) for P2P traffic, e.g., music download, instant messaging. Importantly, Session Border Controller functionality for VoIP will be an integral part of the SmartEdge product line within the new routing/controller card.

With its capabilities, the SE1200 is an ideal platform for Fixed/Mobile Convergence (FMC) and addresses the issues that the expected process-intensive applications require in the converged network. A prime example is delivery of digital HD-TV streams to a potentially large set of users simultaneously through an IP-backbone. The immediate challenges are faced within fixed networks, and they will soon be faced by mobile operators. The SE1200 has the required functionalities for FMC and absorbs all the complexities of the converged network to simplify the operation of the network for the service provider. Network convergence designed with the SE1200 will take advantage of the economies of scale from commonalities between the fixed and mobile networks, e.g., unification of various layers. Studies have shown that there is a clear economic advantage to the service provider in selecting a platform that consolidates those functionalities that are expected at the edge of the network. The SE1200 consolidates multiple functionalities and allows flexibility with high scalability for building the infrastructure for FMC. Other vendor solutions require the deployment of more than one platform vs. a single SmartEdge 1200. Some competitors will require 3 to 5 devices to do what a single SE1200 is capable of.

The technology that was used to build the SE1200 is an engineering feat which allows operators to deliver more bandwidth, more traffic, more services, and accommodate more subscribers. Service providers have accepted the benefits of fixed mobile convergence and need to carefully assess the delivery of present and near-future applications and services. An efficient network architecture is required to deliver applications such as multimedia, e.g., HDTV, Megabit Mobility which are bandwidth thirsty and require strict network management. Furthermore, an FMC solution must be highly scaleable both technically and economically. The SE1200 enables such a solution.