Router Vendors by the Plenty

I just did a search on google for some random BRAS-centric keywords, and up pops Network Equipment Technologies' new SCREAM 100/50 specifications.

This new product was interesting to me because it uses a Cisco IOS based routing engine. I wonder if this means that they are licensing the software and hardware from Cisco Systems?

It's fairly impressive that a company comes up with a complex product like a BRAS router, that supports all the features like HQOS, hitless failover, PPPoA/PPPoE with dynamic provisioning, multicasting, and integration with OSS systems.

OK, so if the features are there and they work as well as a Cisco IOS box, then why would I buy this from Network Equipment Technologies? From past experience in building networks, I can say that there are bound to be software issues that pop up from time to time. When they do, you ring your software vendor and tell them to fix it. If you vendor doesn't actually write the code, the time to turn around code could be weeks if not months. In that time frame, your customer base could suffer the issue many times over, and unfortunately the service provider is at the mercy of the vendor.

The new 10GE aggregate switch ( NX5010ae ) line from these folks is also leveraging some existing architecture from a partner. Bay Microsystems network processors are used in the NX5010ae.

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Originally published on trumanboyes.blogspot.com. See the archived copy.