National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has deployed Juniper Networks QFX3000-M QFabric System to drive StarBED3.
NICT will benefit from an ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth infrastructure to support research and development of next-generation networks, security and services.
StarBED3 is NICT’s third-generation IP network test bed, aimed at emulating large and complex network environments. It’s located at the Hokuriku StarBED Technology Center.
It comprises more than 1,100 physical servers, together with network switch clusters for controlling experimental nodes and supporting interactive communication over a backbone operating at speeds of up to 200 Gbps.
The QFabric System currently links 224 experimental servers at StarBED3 at high speed and with less than three microseconds of latency, all within a compact space and with low power consumption.
The new QFabric test bed will enable researchers from universities, public institutes and private industries to test large-scale emulation technology platforms, network platform validation technology and multilayer integration validation technology in an IPv4/IPv6 environment.
“QFabric provides the ideal configuration for next-generation data centers. We see QFabric as a powerful tool for taking our large-scale emulation environment into the next generation,” said Shinsuke Miwa, director, NICT Hokuriku StarBED Technology Center.
The QFabric architecture can be expanded to 40 Tbps. It significantly reduces the operational workload of running the data center.
“The fewer switches in the data center, the less complex it is, so operating costs will significantly decrease. The QFabric architecture will also reduce power consumption, save space and minimize cooling costs,” said Douglas Murray, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific, Greater China and Japan, Juniper Networks.
