Juniper building own packet core for wireless

While rivals are snapping up players in the 4G packet core space, Juniper Networks said it's going to develop its own packet core solution for wireless networks.

The company said it will build off a host of products it recently announced around hardware and universal edge to develop its wireless solution. Specifically, the company's new lineup of routers and linecards, together known as MX 3D, can be used to build packet core capabilities for wireless networks, Luce Ceuppens, Juniper's vice president of technical marketing, told Unstrung.

"It's flexible enough, and it's powerful enough that we can write the applications to have that platform support it," he said.

Meanwhile, Cisco is buying Starent Networks and Tellabs recently announced its acquisition of WiChorus.

Juniper describes its packet core effort as one that will be part of the universal edge--a network that can change depending on what service is being delivered. More bandwidth would automatically be applied to what application needs it most. So video service would warrant more bandwidth compared with email.

"It means we'll deliver a mobile packet core to the industry, but it will be on a universal edge that you can run any other types of services [on]. It won't be one box built for one service," Kim Perdikou, Juniper's vice president of infrastructure products, told Unstrung.

With the MX 3D routers and linecards, Perdikou said Juniper already has 70 percent of what it needs for mobility. Other pieces might be delivered by partners.

For more:
- check out this Unstrung article [1]

Related articles:
Cisco buying Starent [1] for $2.9B [2]
Tellabs snaps up WiChorus for 4G packet core play [3]
Alca-Lu introduces LTE [4] evolved packet core