Broadcom is rolling out a host of products to support a unified networking vision both at the core of the enterprise data center and on the edge of business WLANs. The XGS Core fabric architecture and WLAN offerings bring together new and existing Broadcom technology to offer OEMs integrated solutions that allow them to build cost-effective Ethernet networking products for enterprises.Broadcom is playing for both of ends of the enterprise network with a spate
of new products and platforms.
Broadcom May 19 rolled out its XGS Core networking fabric architecture armed
with new low-power, high-density Ethernet switches for data centers,
enterprises and service provider networks. On the same day, Broadcom unveiled a
hardware and software solution designed to enable enterprises to take advantage
of the 802.11n standard in their wireless networks.
The moves come as network device providers look for ways to offer businesses
complete packages to help them cope with the increased traffic generated by the
growth of virtualization technology, cloud computing and such
bandwidth-intensive applications as video.
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Broadcom is combining the XGS Core fabric architecture with its existing
StrataXGS switch silicon and software to give OEMs a platform for building new
high-performance Ethernet platforms, Broadcom officials said. Using the
offering can help keep OEMs and enterprises from having to cobble together a
network using ASICs technologies, FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) and
third-party products, according to Martin Lund, vice president and general
manager for Broadcom's Network Switching Business Unit.
"As we have done previously in low and midrange systems, our unmatched
integration and executive will drive 'Ethernet economics' into high-end
networking equipment," Lund
said in a statement.
The offering includes the company's BCM88200
Series nonblocking interface and traffic manager supporting up to 80G bps of
full duplex bandwidth per device, which officials say is important with the
growth of 10
Gigabit Ethernet networks and the move later to 40G Ethernet.
Other new technology in the XGS Core comprises the BCM88100
scalable switch fabric, BCM56900 deep buffer
manager and a Virtual Chassis Reference System enabling businesses to develop a
virtual chassis identical to their own systems that can scale to 10T bps of
capacity.
In the WLAN space, Broadcom is bringing together its WLAN silicon, switch
silicon and networking software to give OEMs a platform for building unified
wireless network offerings.
The goal is to give businesses a wireless networking architecture that can
take advantage of the greater performance and bandwidth capabilities the
802.11n standard has over 802.11a/b/g.
"While 802.11n improves Wi-Fi performance and expands wireless
connectivity into new applications, it requires a new unified network architecture
to avoid inefficiencies and traffic bottlenecks," Lund
said.
Broadcom's integrated offering lets businesses unify their wired and
wireless infrastructures and improves the scalability, management and
performance of the Wi-Fi network by enabling them to take advantage of the
802.11n standard, the company said.
Company officials said the market for 802.11n access points is going to grow,
citing work by ABI Research predicting that
the market would grow from fewer than 1 million units in 2008 to 14 million
units by 2014.
Broadcom's offering comes with the new BCM56520
unified wireless/wire-line switchthe sixth generation of the company's
StrataXGS Ethernet switch familywhich lets manufacturers build edge switches
that make unified wireless networks economically feasible for enterprises, the
company said.
In addition, it includes the BCM4748
integrated 802.11n access point silicon-on-chip product and Version 6.0 of
Broadcom's FastPath unified wireless switching and unified access point
software, which manages the WAN (wide-area network) platform. FastPath 6.0
includes wireless virtualization software for centralized management of unified
edge switching, which officials said leads to better scaling.