Pluribus Networks has launched a white box gateway intended to give regional cloud service providers (CSP), managed service providers (MSP), and colocation/hosting providers an alternative to proprietary edge routers.
The Pluribus Freedom Series 9532C-XL-R runs an instance of the NetVisor ONE operating system from Pluribus that enables service providers to carve up bandwidth using a “deep slicing” capability across multiple tenants accessing backend services, says Mike Capuano, chief marketing officer for Pluribus Networks. The NetVisorOne operating system is based on a Linux kernel.
Each tenant is provided with a dedicated, containerized, and hardware accelerated virtual router running Linux Foundation open source FRRouting software, with each gateway providing access to up to 32 virtual routers, says Capuano.
The gateway is built for Pluribus Networks by EdgeCore using commercial silicon rather than proprietary ASICs. The 9532C-XL-R can be configured with up to 32 100 GbE interfaces or up to 128 x 10/25 GbE interfaces in a 1RU unit. The gateway employs a lower memory footprint optimized to support up to 128,000 routes compared to a traditional edge router that is typically configured to process one million routes to cover the full internet table.
The result is a routing capability that can be delivered for one-fifth the cost of a traditional router, says Capuano.
“That savings goes right to the bottom line of the service provider,” says Capuano.
Advocates of white box networking based on Linux derivatives that can run on any switch have only enjoyed modest success against rivals such as Cisco and Juniper Networks. Service providers, however, are a lot more sensitive to cost, so Capuano says Pluribus Networks expects there to be a lot more immediate interest in an alternative to proprietary routers.
It’s too early to say to what degree service providers might be willing to lessen their dependence on Cisco, Arista Networks and Juniper Networks. However, service providers have made it clear they are investing in open source technologies to drive the next generation of services based on commodity processors. As a first step toward achieving that goal, Pluribus Networks is betting some service providers will want to replace proprietary platforms at the edge of the data center sooner than later.
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