Network White box Cluster

Peering at different points in the network

Declining revenues and lower margins have put service providers profitability at risk. At the same time, demand for capital expenditure has been increasing, having to invest in both existing infrastructure to meet the rapid growth in data traffic, and also to find new areas of innovation for growth. The pressure to substantially grow network scale, while controlling cost, has created an inflection point for service provider networking.

DriveNets introduced a “disaggregated” networking model of a cluster of white boxes and separate software. DriveNets Network Cloud is based on a distributed disaggregated architecture that can reach extreme capacity by scaling linearly from a single white box router of 4 Tb/s to a cluster of hundreds of white boxes. This model allows the mix-and-match of the hardware in order to bring prices down while scaling-out. The white boxes used in the cluster can be spread across multiple racks to accommodate unique cooling and power capabilities. Also, with the chip’s virtual output queue capabilities provide end-to-end visibility, allowing the distribution of the services (e.g. broadband, business, critical services, etc.) within the cluster, with the cluster acting as a single entity.