Juniper Networks Expands Partnership with Ericsson to Accelerate 5G Transformation

Juniper Networks†(NYSE:JNPR), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks,†has announced it has expanded its 18-year partnership with†Ericsson, a global leader in mobile networks, to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end 5G solution leveraging each company’s complementary portfolios. Together, the companies are now offering service providers a complete 5G transport network solution with single pane of glass visibility to manage the new requirements of next-generation mobile service delivery.

This deepened partnership aims to offer service providers a complete solution from radio to core for new-service delivery while managing mounting complexity. 5G is expected to be a game changer for the next generation of business and consumer services, but the increase in connectivity, network traffic, and customer expectations will likely create new challenges for managing the mobile transport network in a cost-effective way. Evolving 5G use cases, including connected cars, AR/VR and 8K video streaming, and the associated 5G radio requirements needed to support these diverse applications can place additional demands across the network. Capacity, connectivity, latency, synchronization, reliability and security needs will all require tighter integration between the 5G radio, core and transport layers of an end-to-end mobile network.

To alleviate these challenges, Juniper’s expanded partnership with Ericsson greatly simplifies service providers’ 5G transformation by creating a tightly integrated solution that combines Juniper’s routing for next-generation WAN services and IP transport, and†Ericsson’s Router 6000†and†MINI-LINK microwave portfolio†for distributed, centralized and virtualized radio access. In addition, the solution leverages Juniper’s Unified Cybersecurity Platform to secure the entire 5G mobile infrastructure against ever-expanding and sophisticated threats. This comprehensive solution provides seamless connectivity from the radio cell site to the mobile core all unified under Ericsson’s management and orchestration solution, improving the performance, quality, and ease-of-use of the entire 5G solution. The joint end-to-end 5G transport solution will be designed and built from day one with the intent of supporting exceptional 5G radio performance in a cost-effective way.

As part of this deepened partnership, Juniper will utilize Ericsson’s go-to-market for mobile opportunities and Ericsson will include Juniper’s solutions for edge, core, and security as part of its end-to-end 5G transport portfolio.

News Details

Ericsson and Juniper have come together to deliver a full end-to-end mobile solution to ease service providers’ evolution to 5G. The solution encompasses the following products from each company:

• Access, fronthaul/backhaul:
  • Ericsson Router 6000†flagship mobile backhaul portfolio.
  • Ericsson Fronthaul 6000 includes high-density optical solutions that complement microwave solutions for CPRI and eCPRI transport.
• Microwave radio backhaul:
  • Ericsson’s MINI-LINK†is a 5G-ready microwave technology.
• WAN Services and IP Transport:
  • Juniper’s MX and PTX Series provide a high degree of versatility to support mobile infrastructure for 10G/100G/400G optical transport, simplified operations with Juniper’s unique universal design, advanced Junos OS software functionality including Junos Node Slicing, Juniper Telemetry Interfaces, and an open, standards-based hardware-accelerated 5G CUPS User Plane.
    • Juniper’s†MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform†is the industry’s only WAN edge services solution to deliver near-infinite programmability, cost efficiency and versatility with performance at scale for the evolving technological and business demands of next-generation mobile services delivery.
    • Juniper’s PTX Series Packet Transport Routers†are built to optimize IP/MPLS transport for backbone, peering and converged metro core applications.
    • Juniper’s transport routers offer integrated dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) interfaces with interoperability between the MX, PTX series and Ericsson’s Router 6000.
• Security Gateway & Gi Firewall:
  • Ericsson Radio Base Stations are already integrated with the†Juniper’s SRX Series Services Gateway, a high performance and highly scalable next-gen firewall platform, providing both Gi Firewall and security gateway solutions for end-to-end 4G/5G offerings. Juniper will continue to enhance its security solutions to work efficiently with Ericsson’s RAN solutions as they evolve to 5G.
• Unified management and control:
  • Ericsson’s management and orchestration solution will be applied across Ericsson and Juniper products, which will be fully integrated, including full FCAPS support.

Ericsson and Juniper will be demonstrating this end-to-end 5G transport solution at the Ericsson booth S.1724 in the South Hall at MWC Americas Sept 12-14 in Los Angeles, CA.

Supporting quotes

“Commercial 5G is expected to represent close to a quarter of all global network traffic in the next five years. With both companies bringing together industry-leading network technology, Juniper and Ericsson will be able to more effectively capitalize on the immense global market opportunity in front of us and help our customers simplify their journey to fully operational 5G networks.”

-Manoj Leelanivas, Chief Product Officer, Juniper Networks

“By combining Ericsson’s leading transport portfolio with Juniper’s best-in-class edge, core and security portfolio, we will create an end-to-end transport offering that is ready for all the demands of next-generation networks. Our customers will benefit from the one-stop-shop approach, making it easier for them to build and operate high-performing 5G networks.”

-Nishant Batra, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson