A new deal will, it is claimed, create South Africa’s first commercial network driven by segment routing.
Juniper Networks, a leading name in secure, AI-driven networks, and NEC Corporation, a global integrator of IT and network technologies, have announced that they have worked with Herotel, South Africa’s largest fixed wireless service provider, to enable the country’s first commercial network to deploy segment routing as part of a significant network upgrade initiative.
Herotel chose to build its new IP network based on segment routing principles, augmenting traditional MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) techniques, to maximize operational flexibility and agility and to help deliver improved, consistent user experiences at scale and cost-effectively.
As for what segment routing actually is, it is described as a control-plane architecture which simplifies traffic engineering, enabling the path that data packets take across the network to be determined in advance. This means fewer network elements are involved, avoiding slow response to sudden network changes. It also supports the application of quality of service, mapping specific applications and end users to preferential network service paths.
Juniper Networks' MX Series Universal Routing Platform underpins the solution deployed by Herotel – specifically, the MX204 Universal Routing Platform for metro access routing and the MX10008 Universal Routing Platform in the network core.
Herotel also has the Juniper Broadband Network Gateway Solution enabled across its distributed architecture to support local peering and as a content delivery network. This capability is enabled by the MX platforms and Junos OS, the single operating system that powers Juniper’s portfolio.
NEC led the architectural design and implementation of Herotel’s new network as the network integrator. Juniper and NEC XON, a subsidiary of NEC, worked closely together to deliver Herotel’s new network.
