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AMS-IX, One Of The World’s Largest Internet Exchange Points, Doubles Network Capacity And Paves Way To 100 Gbe With Brocade
Published Sep 22, 2010
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To cope with the surging appetite for bandwidth and Internet culture, the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), one of the world’s largest Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), has doubled its network capacity by deploying new Brocade® MLXe Core Routers (see separate press release) as part of a core infrastructure upgrade. This effort future-proofs the network while enhancing operational stability and providing a seamless, cost-effective path for high-density deployment of 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) technology.
AMS-IX is one of the largest Internet Exchange Points worldwide, where global service providers and other large IP networks come together. With 365 members – consisting of carriers, ISPs, telcos, content providers, CDNs, hosting and application providers as well as mobile networks – generating close to a Terabit per second (Tbps) of Internet traffic, the AMS-IX platform provides high-quality, non-blocking professional IP Interconnection and peering services for all types of IP traffic (whether regular data, video or VoIP). AMS-IX additionally hosts the first mobile peering points worldwide, the Global GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) and the Mobile Data Exchange (MDX), as well as solutions for broadcasting with a multicast peering service.
According to Gartner, the emergence of more online video and bandwidth-consuming mobile applications will cause Internet traffic to grow approximately five-fold in the next three to four years. In the last ten years, Internet penetration across Europe has grown more than 257 percent with over two-thirds of the population connected to the Web1. Within the AMS-IX environment alone, traffic peaks are close to a Terabit per second. There are over 340 10 GbE member ports, many of which have aggregated two, four or even eight 10 GbE ports to cope with demand. In order to sustain this port density and enable the transition to higher-density 100 GbE deployments, AMS-IX needed to significantly increase its network capacity.
“The amount of traffic we have to deal with doubles every 18 months, and we have a duty of service to our members to ensure that the network infrastructure is able to cope with today’s demands and those yet to come,” commented Henk Steenman, chief technology officer (CTO) at AMS-IX. “Our existing infrastructure was reaching capacity, so we urgently needed to increase port density. In addition, we needed to look to the future and develop a migration path to 100 GbE technology. We needed an architecture that could scale with demand, at an attractive price point, while protecting the investment we had made in our existing MPLS/VPLS environment. Thanks to Brocade, we have done this.”
The organisation decided to tackle both challenges simultaneously. As part of a single project, AMS-IX deployed seven Brocade MLXe-32 routers (leveraging new high-performance switch fabric modules) to complement the existing infrastructure of Brocade MLX-8, MLX-16 and MLX-32 routers. The Brocade MLXe delivers massive scalability, astounding 100 GbE price point advantages and breakthrough performance. This approach enables next-generation virtualised data centres to support rising traffic demands and deliver cloud-based services using less infrastructure – vastly improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. In addition, the chassis delivers full, standard-based routing capabilities and support all existing Brocade MLX and Brocade NetIron® XMR modules, providing extraordinary investment protection. For AMS-IX, the Brocade MLXe was the only solution that could fulfil its demand for capacity growth while providing a migration path to higher densities of both 10 GbE and 100 GbE ports.
“Brocade was the only vendor who could build a bridge towards higher densities of 100 GbE ports while leveraging the existing infrastructure. This was a key factor in our decision-making process as we did not want to invest in an environment for the short term and then have to replace it at great expense when the move to 100 GbE was viable. The Brocade MLXe provides the platform to do this. Brocade has not only delivered a solution to meet our immediate requirement, but has given us a blueprint for the future,” Steenman added.
In conjunction with the deployment of 120 8×10G Series blades, which doubles the Brocade MLX capacity threshold to 256 wire-speed 10 GbE ports in a single chassis, AMS-IX has more than met its objectives. Following a thorough review and evaluation process, which included several trial installations and proof-of-concept testing sessions at Brocade testing labs in San Jose, California, AMS-IX began the upgrade during the middle of 2010.
Steenman continued, “The deployment was seamless and overnight has doubled our 10 GbE port capacity. Due to the setup with our photonic switches, all of this was done without impacting our customers, and Brocade was able to deliver an infrastructure that could accommodate a combination of three key factors: performance, extremely high scalability and reliability. We are in the enviable position of being able to meet projected demand for the next 24 months, and making the move to 100 GbE without having to undergo a major network overhaul. In fact, I placed the order for the very first 100 GbE blades today.”
A key part of the strategic Brocade One™ unified network architecture, the Brocade MLXe reflects the company’s vision of unmatched simplicity, optimised applications, non-stop networking and investment protection in delivering customer solutions.
“As the amount of data consumed continues to soar, the pressure being placed on the Internet has never been so great,” stated Alberto Soto, vice president EMEA at Brocade. “Service providers must scale their networks to meet rising traffic demand and compete for customers while maximising their revenue-cost gaps. With the introduction of the Brocade MLXe, we are providing them with an architecture that not only doubles the chassis backplane capacity and helps meet today’s demand for capacity, but offers a seamless evolution to higher-density 100 GbE deployments at a highly compelling price. What Brocade has delivered at AMS-IX perfectly illustrates why the Brocade MLXe is such a ground-breaking solution.”
For more information, visit www.brocade.com
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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