The Linley Tech Processor Conference attracted 300 attendees.

In the first day’s sessions, one could easily get the impression that multicores are up to the task of network processing. Thanks to Mike Coward of RadiSys, however, the bold marketing claims got a good reality check. RadiSys build systems based on multicore technology. Today, they do 10G per line card. In two, years, they expect to run up to 100G, and 100G in a single chip is likely four years out, all according to his estimation.

For those that don’t want to wait this long, you are welcome to Xelerated. Our 100G wirespeed NPU is here, and now going into production. And in addition to any of the multicore processors in the market, it also includes an advanced traffic manager.

Update: Xelerated’s presentation on ‘Uncompromised throughput at low power’ can be found here.

Xpress: How does the 100G NPU technology contribute to the networking industry?

AE: This new generation NPUs is changing some fundamental economics for the design of Carrier Ethernet systems and how system vendors compete. First, we have the bandwidth factor. The next wave of Carrier Ethernet line cards and systems will deliver higher capacities and packet rates within the same power budget. Second, we get more processing and features. The integrated advanced traffic manager allows system vendors to build more capable systems with higher quality and more advanced services at radically reduced dollar per gigabit. Third, the shift in favor to merchant NPU enable system vendors to compete more with software and feature velocity rather than having to depend on internal ASIC projects.

Xpress: How can Xelerated compete with in-house packet processing silicon?

AE: We are gaining experience from so many more customers, markets, sources and stake holders than an internal development group can get. Our solutions are catered for a broader task and can be used in so many more systems and applications. In comparison, Xelerated network processors are more flexible and have a higher integration factor. They include advanced traffic management and buffering, many hardware engines and huge banks of embedded memories. As our technology applies to a broad set of applications, we pay attention to R&D economics such as time to market, and re-usability of investments in software.

Xpress: What attracts system vendors to use silicon from Xelerated?

AE: We provide three fundamental benefits that no other supplier can provide today.

1. Determinism through the wirespeed architecture
2. Highly efficient programmability, and
3. Low power consumption

It is the combination of the three that makes the big difference.

Xpress: Why is low power consumption becoming critical?

AE: Power consumption is a key design parameter in all systems today, across application types.  This is driven by direct energy costs, less complex and faster installation, minimized need for forced ventilation, and compliance to state regulations for environmental protection. And on top of that you gain a more cost-effective design.

Xpress: In what type of platforms do you see the largest adoption for HX and AX chips?

AE: OTN, Transport systems, PTN, Mobile Backhaul, Carrier-Ethernet Switch Routers and PON OLTs

Xpress: Does the technology enable fundamentally new designs, or are we mainly seeing more of the same; more ports, more packets and more bandwidth?

AE: We see both new designs and more of the same. With our state of the art integrated traffic manager we enable new systems with more efficient designs. But there is of course an ongoing cry for more bandwidth and throughput. One has to bear in mind though, that not all components are in the same maturity stage. For instance, there are a lot of optical components that are too expensive to support a cost-effective roll-out of 100G solutions before 2014.

Xpress: Are there any sweet spot designs?

AE: Yes, OTN and PTN. The HX and AX product attributes fit well in these high-volume optimized designs.

Xpress: The dataflow architecture has evolved in HX and AX. How?

AE: Our core technology continuously evolves. The HX and AX with the 100G dataflow architecture is now in production. It includes enhanced service densities; higher lookup rates and more processor cores compared to the 40G generation. In addition, we have enhanced the flexibility by allowing intelligent oversubscription through advanced pre-classification.

Moving forward the dataflow architecture is already staged for 200G and 400G. We are assessing parallel pipes, and enhanced flexibility for ingress and egress processing while retaining the deterministic characteristics.

Xpress: Xelerated is making a strong push for wirespeed processing. Is this inherent to the HX and AX chips?

AE: Wirespeed is by design and inherent to all our products.

Xpress: Doesn’t wirespeed come with a flexibility tax?

AE: Not really, our software and application utilization is not dependent on traffic load. It is always deterministic to the speed and throughput that the devices are specified for.

Xpress: How are customers responding to the new integrated traffic manager? Are customers using this feature?

AE: The market response has been overwhelming, really. It is mainly used for per-user and per-service shaping in both line card and pizza box designs. This was really the primary application we had in mind. But, we also see additional interest for building chassis-based solutions solely on the integrated TM.

Xpress: When do you expect the first platforms in volume based on HX and AX chips?

AE: HX-based products are expected to ramp in November, while AX will ramp in December.

Xpress: 100G network processing is here and now. So what’s next?

AE: The industry is screaming for more bandwidth and more advanced packet services on Carrier Ethernet systems. We have a number of interesting innovations in-design, but it is a bit early still to unveil any secrets.

As service providers continue to invest in optical transport equipment, vendors are preparing for a new generation OTN platforms to hit the market. These will have more flexible bandwidth management functions, and include a wide range of Ethernet and MPLS packet services. Old record volumes are within reach.

He reports the Internet backbone traffic growth is back at 100%, driven mainly by video traffic going online. Netflix, Voddler and other over the top video services are quickly gaining popularity. In the US, Netflix represents 30% of the Internet bandwidth at peak hours, according to a report by Sandvine.

Another point of interest is the increased need for adaptability. Cloud services are mainly driven by IT, not by the networking folks. While packet-based networks are flexible, the equipment serving our public broadband networks is not always designed to cope with unexpected changes of traffic patterns. Neither are they designed to support future protocol innovations developed to make networks better suitable to online video and ultimate on-demand nature of cloud services.

See the complete interview with Paul Savell at LRTV.

While 100GE is still in trial phase, large-scale backbones and data centers are now hitting the limits of the 10GE technology. The demands for merchant 100GE optics and network packet processing are required to enable the technology shift.

While analyst firm Infonetics projects a mass-market for 100GE in 2015, the demand is here and now. Let’s put in another gear to shorten the time to the 100 GE mass-market.

And interestingly enough it is not a tenfold from very low levels, which tends to be the case when we see booming markets numbers being touted. No, the 10G and above market in the enterprise and service provider segments was already in 2009 north of $10 billion ($11.1 to be exact according to the report).

So what drives this insatiable demand for bandwidth?

For the Service Provider segment it is clear that the growth stems from the build-outs of new Fiber Access networks. They are architected for service delivery over Ethernet, and generate traffic in high volumes that is aggregated by switches and routers. In turn, they need interface speeds that are several magnitudes higher than the access side of the network. Already in this early phase of the market, the interest for Gigabit access is real, and growing through for instance the Googles initiative “Fiber for Communities”. Also new products are arriving to meet the new demands. The recently announced high-density gigabit access switch developed jointly by Accton and Xelerated, is perfectly aimed to this market.

The 10G growth is not limited to the service provider segment. Also enterprises are inevitably migrating to 10G interface connectivity. End-users consume more bandwidth, and require that data centers scale in parity with that growth.

Some philosopher said “the best way to predict the future is to create it”.  At Xelerated we make the fastest and most flexible chips for this new market. We are part of the creation. But does this mean we know where future networking will be in 20 years? Sure – let me just take out my crystal ball from the drawer…

According to Point Topic, Asia now accounts for nearly 40% of all broadband subscribers.  Not to mention, the region outperformed the sum of all other regions in terms of net subscriber additions last year. With China, Japan and South Korea leading the way, other Asian countries are growing fast, but from a smaller base. The Philippines grew 60% last year, and India 40%(!).

China passed the 100 million subscriber milestone in the fourth quarter last year, and the pace of growth is not slowing down. There is no doubt these numbers have a profound impact on how the industry is being shaped in support for the emerging fiber-based broadband market.

The Network Processor (NPU) industry is no different. A new generation comes with significant more processing power, and still our customers ask for more. There are more standards coming down the road, and there are more features requested by service providers around the world. Demand is always more, never less.

At the recent Linley tech seminar Xelerated’s Vice President of Business Development, Thomas Eklund, delivered a presentation – available for download on Slideshare – on the importance of service density in the NPU business. If your processing device can’t manage all the network services expected, then you will find your Research & Development department under hard stress to balance features and performance against available resources.  The need for greater service density is an important aspect for the whole service provider industry. If next generation routers and switching platforms can be built with greater headroom for new services, we can extend the lifetime of the equipment, and thereby strengthen the business case for the broadband services.

Service density can be a bit hard to measure, but doing some very basic calculations on the raw service processing capabilities of a particular chip is fairly straightforward and this will give you a rough idea on the capabilities of the chip. Failing to do this in an evaluation process for a new line card design often leads to unhappy surprises at a very late stage in the project. In turn this results in risk of missing an important market window, as well as signficantly increased engineering and product costs.  So take a look and find out – how much service density is your chip providing?

Update: this post was re-published at Advanced TCA Systems Web Site.

This year, the energy and activity level at Mobile World Congress has been far better compared to the two previous years’ events. A lot of ideas about sharing networks were shown both by service providers and vendors.  Huawei showcased the largest and widest portfolio and made a big impact with their lifetime cost approach. And NEC’s focus on cloud computing was impressive, expanding its concept to all types of customers/users and putting the operators in the central role.

Another thing that struck me about this year’s show is that there are not many Asian people in attendance. In particular, I did not find many of my Chinese industry colleagues.  This week was the Chinese New Year with the spring festival, which is comparable to having an event during the United States’ Thanks giving holiday.  Even still, there were several Asian companies participating and showing their goods, however few visitors from the region.

While previous Mobile World Congress events have been clogged with small startups trying to attract larger companies for M&A activities, this time it was far more companies aiming at building and growing on their own. Another very healthy sign.

Of course, a more dominant subject here at the show is LTE, however it is being talked about in a very broad context. And few are discussing how to become the most efficient bit-pipe provider (which must be the basis for all MNOs).

Another trend is that OPEX seems to be coming back after years of short-term focus on CAPEX.  And lastly, it is interesting to note that the representatives from the Asian markets air a much more positive vision of the future compared with the “old” world.

Stay tuned for more thoughts from the show floor…