Computing centers to get faster links
Connecting state and local government leaders
Bay Microsystems' 40G processor handles converged voice, video, data.
High-speed data centers' ability to communicate with each other across wide-area networks could get a significant boost with the release of a new generation of network processors. Bay Microsystems announced at the recent NXTcomm trade show a new version of its Agile Bandwidth Exchange (ABEx) edge aggregation platform based on its 40-gigibit/sec processor.
Ten-gigabit speeds already are well-established in government networks, said Charles Gershman, president and chief executive officer at Bay Microsystems. 'They are actively looking to move to 40-gigabit data rates.'
Wormholes
ABEx helps high-speed networks communicate efficiently with each other, minimizing WAN latency. It tunnels protocols across the WAN rather than terminating and converting them at the network edge.
'You get much more-efficient utilization of the WAN links between your islands,' Gershman said. 'The goal is that the only latency they will see is the speed of light.'
The new platform will use Bay Microsystems' Chesapeake 40G processor, which it made available in sample quantities in March. The processor is optimized for handling converged voice, video and data traffic on overburdened networks.
The growing demand for video, with its high bandwidth requirements and sensitivity to latency, is a major driver for this technology, and the intelligence community is one of the prime markets.
'The federal government has been an early adopter for the technology,' because it has been a pioneer in cluster computing, Gershman said. Power users needed to improve communications among high-performance clusters. 'They were one of the early identifiers of the problem.'
In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture-capital arm and technology incubator, is an investor in Bay Microsystems, and government customers worked closely in development of network processors, using early products in test beds. The processors are making their way into Bay Microsystems tools such as ABEx and to manufacturers of carrier equipment.
'The key is to make the federal government customer happy while being able to go to the commercial market,' Gershman said.
Translating application protocols at the network edge can degrade performance and increase the complexity of network management. 'Any time two protocols talk to each other, there is a mismatch and inefficiency,' Gershman said.
The new ABEx aggregation platform helps eliminate unneeded complexity by maintaining a single protocol. 'It takes some spoofing work and a lot of quality of service,' Gershman said.
Previous ABEx models operate at 10G speeds. The company has quadrupled performance with the new processors, reducing a chipset to a single chip with greater video awareness. The new tools are expected to be available for trial by the end of the year.
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