Specifications

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General Description
The M160 represents the next generation platform for Juniper Networks.
Building on the M40 product the M160 provides:
§ High Density OC-48c interfaces (up to 32 ports per system)
§ OC-192c interfaces to provide a higher interface speed and to provide
high speed optical connections to WDMs (available Q2 2000)
§ The ability to build a system with no single point of failure.
§ Enhance installation and servicability.
Design
The M160 leverages the proven M40 design by scaling the number of
switching cores in the system. The M40 consists of a single switching core
providing over 40Mpps of forwarding. The M160 is composed of up to 4
interconnected switching cores providing over 160Mpps of forwarding
performance.
Because the switching cores are oversized this design also provides
outstanding system resiliency. The failure of a switch fabric leaves sufficient
bandwidth to continue packet forwarding without system degradation.
To further improve resiliency the Routing Engines, which are responsible for
Layer 3 topology acquisition, are also redundant. Because of the system’s
distributed architecture this duplication allows for virtually uninterrupted
forwarding even if the primary Routing Engine fails. This duplication also
greatly simplifies routine system maintenance by allowing for the removal of
a Routing Engine while forwarding continues.
In addition to resiliency the Routing Engines also provide high performance.
Running JUNOS, a custom software system designed for the Internet, on
333Mhz Pentium processors the Routing Engines have the power to handle
control functions and traffic engineering at the Internet core.
Leveraging the larger switching core and the improved Routing Engines, the
M160 provides 4 times the interface density of the M40. Up to 32 OC-48c
interfaces or 8 OC-192c interfaces are supported in a single chassis. With
the small size and low power consumption of the M160 this allows up to 64
OC-48c or 16 OC-192c interfaces to be provisioned in a single 7-foot rack.