Nokia recently unveiled a brand-new collection of network chips, designed to be the fastest processors in the current technology market. The chips are intended to support service providers who need to respond to the increasing demands of IoT networks and cloud processing. According to Nokia, the latest traffic routers should be able to handle the excess demands of virtual reality programming, along with next-generation mobile, and cloud-based services.
Nokia also believes that their new product will be an innovative solution for the telecoms market. This upgrade comes at a time when Nokia’s existing base of telecom companies are searching for ways to upgrade with backwards-compatible technology.
For businesses, the new routers mean no more time waiting for pages to buffer, no more unexpected issues with connectivity, and far more productivity in the workplace.
Introducing the New Chips
Nokia’s new chips are built using Nokia’s own FP4 silicon, which means that they can keep up with the high processing volume required for things like next-generation 5G connectivity, and virtual reality programming. These chips will also allow service providers and webscale operators to design networks that are more secure than ever before. This should be a particularly attractive feature to the companies that have been shaken by recent cyber-attacks.
The advanced petabit-class technology used by Nokia was created after the company’s Alcatel takeover in 2015, which included the acquisition of the IP network gear division. The innovative products should mean that Nokia’s well-prepared to compete in the market with Cisco and Juniper.
The FP4 silicon technology can process 2.4 terabits of data per second. Because several chips have been processed onto a single board, Nokia has made a card that’s capable of 12Tb/s, a system capable of processing data six times faster than the existing market routers.
Speed and Convenience for Businesses
The new technology from Nokia should help the company to win business from “webscale” companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. The routers are compatible with older products, serving customers who want to increase speed, but maintain legacy products.
Right now, Nokia believes that IP traffic in the business space will more than double within the next five years, reaching around 330 exabytes per month in 2022. This increase in demand is likely to come from a higher desire for business services like virtual reality, and high-definition video streaming. IoT networks alone should connect about 100 billion devices by 2025.
The latest chipsets from Nokia are scheduled to ship out in the last quarter of the year, though routers that run the FP4 chips will be available in the first quarter of 2018. These routers will be implemented into systems to provide ultra-high-speed networks at the heart of some of the biggest internet services in the world – great news for businesses who rely on dependable internet connections for their ongoing productivity.
The chips are also likely to be used in “edge” networks that are responsible for connecting data centres to front-line fixed networks, and customer services.
Performance and Security
The Nokia FP4 chips are designed using circuits as small as 16 nanometres apart. Nokia is currently introducing the 7950 petabit-class routers with an aim to assist the core routing market, hoping that the exceptional connections will help it to earn business from market-leaders like Facebook and Apple.
A single petabit is enough to transmit 5,000 two-hour-long videos in high-definition every second. Additionally, for edge customers, Nokia will be introducing the 7750 router, providing the highest level of traffic capacity currently on the market. In comparison with other competitors in the internet and technology space, Nokia’s 7750 can provide speeds as high as 4.8 terabits per slot – a huge increase, compared to Juniper’s 3 terabit router speeds for edge customers. Until recently, Juniper had been the fastest provider in the industry.
To put the potential for businesses into perspective, one terabit can transfer a high-definition Netflix show within a single second. That means that constant video conferencing and displays would be no problem. Imagine the productivity you could achieve with speeds like that!
Importantly, besides the sheer speed of Nokia’s latest development, it’s worth noting that there’s enough processing power available in the new chipset to provide a built-in range of exceptional security features. These features are designed to fend off DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which have gathered media attention in recent months.
BT have announced that they’ve already taken up Nokia’s new products, and are currently running thousands of 7750 edge routers, alongside hundreds of 7950 systems within their core network, to provide faster connections.