Juniper pours a shot of its data centre juice into campus networks

Big switch-style fabric comes to pizza boxes

Campus networks will get the same capabilities as data centre networks, after Juniper networks squeezed EVPN-VXLAN fabric functionality into campus-size implementations.

The aim, the company said, is to help companies build an enterprise-wide fabric. In particular, the Gin Palace explained, the move means campus networks can now run the same protocol suite that organisations have deployed in their data centres.

The lynchpin of the DC-to-campus integration is to enable the EX Series switches with the company's EPVN-VXLAN protocol implementation, providing Layer 3 transport and Layer 2 capabilities.

To complement its existing switches, Juniper pushed out the EX4650 switch, a high-density 25/100 Gbps unit with up to 48 100 Gbps Ethernet ports, or 48 ports at 25 Gbps and eight 100 Gbps uplinks. In its top configuration, the 1 RU slice has an aggregate 2 Tbps capacity at Layer 2 and Layer 3.

The campus has one element that you don't see in data centres: nearly-ubiquitous Wi-Fi as the endpoint. To cover that, the company also expanded its resale agreement with Aerohive Networks, with Juniper's Sky Enerprise integrated with the Aerohive Cloud Service APIs and HiveManager management system.

The company's branch portfolio also got some attention: application quality of service has been added to the Contrail SD-WAN. It covers 3,700 applications, with Microsoft offerings like Outlook, Sharepoint, and Skype for Business highlighted.

QoS, Juniper explained, is managed in its various WAN endpoints, using policies managed by Contrail Service Orchestration. Its NFX and SRX Series branch devices also get active-active clustering, to improve throughput and reliability over its various WAN options. ®