Oct to Nov 2010 - Teletimes

AMS-IX, One of the World’s Largest Internet
Exchange Points, Doubles Network Capacity and Paves Way
to 100 GbE with Brocade
New Brocade MLXe Core Router helps leading Internet Exchange Point cope with close to a
Terabit per second (Tbps) of Internet traffic, providing a seamless upgrade path to 100 Gigabit
Ethernet (GbE) and future-proofing the network
To cope with the surging
appetite for bandwidth
and today’s 24/7 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, standardbased
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.
Alberto Sotoz
Colin Saldanha
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 higherdensity
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.” T
40 www.teletimesinternational.com
15Oct - 14Nov 2010