SAN JOSE, USA: Force10 Networks Inc., announced the availability of MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) functionality for its ExaScale E-Series core switch/routers.

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Extending MPLS label switch router (LSR) support to the ExaScale platform enables businesses, such as wholesale carriers, Internet exchange carriers, Internet portals and global 500 enterprises, to seamlessly expand capacity within their MPLS core infrastructure in order to more cost effectively support the rapid growth of “best effort” multimedia traffic.

Steve Garrison, vice president, marketing, Force10 Networks, said: “Customers tell us video and web content alone currently accounts for more than 50 percent of total Internet traffic, and that percentage continues to increase. This rapid growth associated with traffic not directly tied to revenues is driving carriers to look for alternatives to traditional general purpose core routers for expanding capacity more cost effectively.”

The Force10 E-Series delivers an Internet-scale BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routing implementation. All system components are hot swappable and 1+1 control plane redundancy is supported. Force10’s FTOS, operating system software which runs on the ExaScale hardware platform, is fully modular and built on NetBSD and a Unix-like kernel to ensure high reliability and availability. With support for 140 line-rate 10 GbE SFP+ ports in a half-rack chassis, the ExaScale E-Series is the only switch/router with 125 Gbps of useable data capacity per slot today.