Juniper Networks and Nokia Siemens Networks Enhance Partnership to Address Worldwide Carrier Ethernet Market

Companies Intend to Create an End-to-end Carrier Ethernet Solution Managed with a Single Click

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, and Nokia Siemens Networks, a leading global enabler of telecommunications services, today announced an enhancement to their partnership with plans to deliver a fully interoperable Carrier Ethernet solution intended to provide resilient access and aggregation for service providers worldwide. The enhanced partnership is intended to bring the vision of a unified Carrier Ethernet solution supporting all services on a single network.

The Carrier Ethernet solution is planned to provide an end-to-end portfolio consisting of the Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet Services Router, Nokia Siemens Networks A-series Carrier Ethernet Switch and the ASPEN “single click” network management system. The complementary products and technologies are intended to provide service provider customers with the industry’s best Carrier Ethernet solution for mobile backhaul, enterprise and residential services. Current plans are for the new Carrier Ethernet solution to be sold by the both companies or qualified resellers. The targeted availability date is the second half of 2009, subject to compliance with applicable laws.

"The adoption of carrier Ethernet is accelerating, especially for mobile backhaul and enterprise access applications," says John Mazur, Ovum Principal Analyst for Switching and Routing. "Still, network and element management across systems manufactured by different vendors is a major concern for network operators. Integrated end to end management of Carrier Ethernet and IP is not only highly desirable but also a critical requirement for next generation networks".

“With this solution we are expanding the breadth and depth of our relationship with Nokia Siemens Networks,” said Kim Perdikou, executive vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Products Group, Juniper Networks. “Juniper’s strength with the MX-series in Carrier Ethernet metro aggregation applications combined with Nokia Siemens Networks’ leadership in metro access and network management is highly complementary and will enable our customers to monetize the network by supporting new revenue-generating services and by driving down transport costs.”

“Juniper and Nokia Siemens Networks’ complementary Carrier Ethernet solution is targeted to enable Service Providers to innovate in broadband services while driving efficiency of investments,” said Bernd Schumacher, Head of Broadband Connectivity Solutions, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Customers need to have the right combination that offers them an open, industry standard, scalable portfolio. Together we can best meet their needs.”

Juniper Networks MX-series is a family of high-performance Ethernet Services Routers with powerful switching features that deliver unmatched flexibility and reliability to support advanced services and applications. Consisting of the MX960, MX480 and MX240, the MX-series Ethernet Services Routers provide high port-density routing and switching in a range of highly efficient, high-performance hardware platforms, enabling service providers to reduce power, space and cooling costs by as much as 50 percent. The MX-series leverages JUNOS® software, a single operating system running routing, switching and security platforms from Juniper Networks.

The Nokia Siemens Networks A-series is an industry-leading Carrier-Ethernet switching portfolio providing an effective evolution path from the existing TDM networks towards the next-generation Ethernet Transport networks. The A-series provides the SDH carrier-class characteristics over a modern Carrier Ethernet network. Additionally, it enables greater cost-efficiencies by carrying both voice and data traffic with higher traffic volumes at lower costs. The A-series can serve as an access solution located at the customer premises or as an aggregation unit that gathers traffic from different customer networks.

A major operational cost factor for operators is the administration efforts in the network. Nokia Siemens Networks’ ASPEN network management system, offers unparalleled features which simplifies the network management, eliminating the need to configure individual nodes and perform laborious traffic engineering. Instead, end-to-end connections are set up in a point-and-click fashion. The savings become clear when considering that operators have to do thousands of manual reconfigurations a month.

Juniper and Nokia Siemens Networks have a long standing partnership that now encompasses IP aggregation, edge and core products and have deployed solutions in more than 200 service providers around the world. The enhanced partnership further strengthens both parties’ positions in the Carrier Ethernet segment, one of the fastest growing network applications for wireline and mobile service providers.

Nokia Siemens Networks will show a demonstration of a live application over HSDPA, with the base station being backhauled over the complete chain of Carrier Ethernet Transport enabled platforms end-to-end including the following components: Flexi WCDMA BTS (the base station), FlexiPacket Radio, FlexiPacket Hub, and the Juniper Networks MX-series Carrier Ethernet Router. Also demonstrated will be packet-based synchronization based on the IEEE1588-2008 standard. Please visit Nokia Siemens Networks at Mobile World Congress February 16-19 2009 at Booth 8B157, Hall 8.

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