Espoo, Finland and San Francisco - Nokia today unveiled the world's most powerful internet routing platforms that will ensure modern networks are faster, safer and dramatically more adaptable. Nokia FP4 silicon provides a generational performance boost over existing solutions while delivering improved network security and intelligence.
The "next chapter" of the internet, including immersive communications, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence/automation, will again boost productivity and further transform the way we work and how we live. It will also place fresh demands on the network. In addition to continued rapid growth in video traffic driven largely by social networking and content, the upcoming era will add dimensions of scale, create new security threats, and require more agility in network operations.
Nokia Bell Labs forecasts IP traffic will more than double in the next five years, reaching 330 exabytes a month by 2022 while growing at 25 percent compound annual growth rates. Peak data rates will grow even faster, at nearly 40 percent annually. This surge is a direct result of insatiable consumer and business demand for services - including high-definition video streaming and, more recently, virtual reality - combined with the advent of high-speed, low-latency networks that connect people and things. Nokia Bell Labs expects this latter market to reach 100 billion connected devices by 2025.
This new set of challenges will require a re-think of the internet infrastructure. According to Basil Alwan, president of the ION Business Group at Nokia, "The internet platform is set to fully subsume HD on-demand video while simultaneously expanding with connectivity to billions of new devices. Stepping forward demands an immense performance increase, vastly improved insight and security and, of course, compelling economics. With today's announcement, we are delivering the technology advances needed to support this evolution. The end game is all-important: an evolved global nervous system for society and certainly the most capable, cost-effective, resilient and secure infrastructure ever built."
World's Most Powerful Routing Platforms
The Nokia 7750 Service Router (SR)-s series provides the industry's highest-density routing platform that can support a 144 Tb/s configuration in a single shelf.
In addition, the company introduces a petabit-class router, the new Nokia 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS)-XC . A leap for Nokia's core router family and the industry, it is the world's highest-capacity router to date. It scales to 576 Tb/s in a single system through chassis extension, without requiring separate switching shelves.
The new Nokia platforms are the industry's first capable of delivering terabit IP flows, a 10x improvement over the existing 100 Gb/s links used to construct the internet backbone.
A Smarter and More Secure Internet
Nokia has also integrated the optimal blend of capacity and performance with deep visibility, fine-grained control, telemetry and security into its new FP4-based routing platforms. This ensures modern networking systems of webscale companies and service providers can meet data demand, adapt to change, and scale cost-effectively and securely for the cloud, 5G and IoT.
Enhanced packet intelligence and control technology embedded in the FP4 - when combined with Nokia's Deepfield IP network analytics solution and comprehensive SDN portfolio - maximizes efficiency and opportunity while minimizing and mitigating security threats. This includes DDoS attacks, which impact productivity and commerce and are growing in number and impact each year. According to Deloitte Global's TMT predictions , over 10 million attacks are expected in 2017.
Nokia's FP4 Silicon Innovation
The foundation of these new systems is FP4 silicon , a breakthrough networking chipset. FP4 features the world's first 2.4 Tb/s network processor - up to 6x more powerful than processors currently available - opening the door to clear-channel terabit speeds and petabit-class routers.
This innovation is the result of years of engineering and research and leverages the latest advances in silicon including 16nm FinFET Plus and multi-dimensional design. The FP4 design also delivers many architectural innovations, including novel Nokia-invented intelligent memory, that enhance performance and efficiency, all while minimizing package size.
Nokia innovation key facts:
Nokia FP4 is the industry's first 2.4 Tb/s network processor silicon
Industry-first support for terabit IP flows
Industry's first petabit-class router with Nokia XRS-XC delivering 576 Tb/s of capacity
New Nokia 7750 SR-s platforms provide highest density. The single-shelf Nokia 7750 SR-14s supports a 144 Tb/s configuration, and can scale up to 288 Tb/s in capacity
Up to 6x increase in capacity of existing platforms provides investment protection for broadly deployed systems
Unique enhanced packet intelligence and control capabilities to provide deep visibility and fine-grained control, improving quality of experience as well as asset utilization
Nokia will begin shipping the solution in Q4 2017.
Neil McRae, BT Managing Director and Chief Architect, said: "Every day the networks we build enable our customers and communities to come together and share - from the simplest task of booking dinner for family and friends online to seeing the first picture of your newly born granddaughter. The network has changed our world in ways we never imagined. At BT, being the best network that's there for you when you need it is at the core of our purpose. With demand continuing to rocket, together with more cloud-based applications, innovations like Nokia's new FP4 silicon and routing platforms allow us to maintain our commitment to our customers by balancing capacity, intelligence, visibility and security, so we can transform to an insight-driven, automated networking approach for building and operating our networks. And because these innovations also work with existing platforms, we can gracefully evolve our existing networks to complement new builds to prepare for the next wave of ultrafast broadband, 5G, IoT and machine communications."
Daniel Melzer, CTO for DE-CIX, said: "As the world's leading internet exchange operator, DE-CIX values Nokia's multi-terabit FP4 silicon innovation that drives best-in-class capacity, density and efficiency in 7950 XRS routing platforms. DE-CIX continues its partnership with Nokia to deploy the world's biggest and most capable routers at the heart of our exchange. We look forward to being among the very first to deploy the new systems later this year."
Ray Mota, CEO & principal analyst, ACG Research, said: "Webscale operators are building bigger networks to connect resources across the globe and bring data centers closer to users for the highest performance. Nokia has managed to combine the raw horsepower required to run historic amounts of traffic between data centers with intelligent, secure and adaptable capabilities necessary for a cloud-connected environment. The company has seemingly struck the right balance with silicon and systems innovations that address investment protection and now has the fastest router on the market."
Michael Howard, senior research director, Carrier Networks, IHS Markit, said: "Leading network operators everywhere are adopting big data analytics and software-driven automation to evolve to a modern way of building and operating IP networks - no question! Operators are looking for a very high-performance network that provides not just the requisite jacked-up power and capacity, but they also need intelligence and extensibility to meet their goals of automation and service agility. Operators will want to examine the new Nokia FP4 silicon and the systems that use it - as it delivers against this triplet of critical network capabilities - to support their offered services in this cloud age with IoT, 5G, and machine communications, where networks must become bigger, more adaptable and more secure than any we've seen to date."
Frank Ostojic, senior vice president and general manager, ASIC Products Division, Broadcom, said: "Nokia is setting the pace with their FP4 network processor. When it comes to the highest levels of integration and use of cutting edge silicon technologies, including 16nm finFET Plus process technology, Broadcom's industry-leading embedded SerDes, and advanced packaging, Nokia is charting a course that others will have to follow."
Market stats at a glance:
According to Nokia Bell Labs :
Total IP traffic increases to ~330 EB/month by 2022 - growing at 25 percent CAGR, with peak data rates growing at a faster 39 percent CAGR
3D/4K/UHD will experience a 4.79X growth from 2017 - 2022
Wireless traffic will experience 7.5X growth from 2017 - 2022
Worldwide IoT devices to grow from 12B in 2017 to 100B in 2025
Deloitte Global forecasts 10 million instances of DDoS attacks in 2017
Source: Nokia Press Release