Press Releases

Belgium National Internet eXchange Selects Force10 Networks to Deliver High Performance and Best-in-Class Reliability to Customers

SAN JOSE, Calif., August 3, 2010 – Force10 Networks, Inc., a global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business, today announced that the Belgium National Internet eXchange (BNIX) has selected its ExaScale™ E-Series family of switch/routers for the scalable, cost-effective delivery of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) peering services to its enterprise business and service provider customers. As an Internet exchange, BNIX provides high-performance interconnections between its members, which include more than 40 ISPs, content providers, research centers, government agencies and business users throughout Belgium.
BNIX is built around a distributed Layer 2 switching architecture and provides IPv4, Multicast and IPv6 services. Peering is available at a number of point-of-presence locations throughout Belgium, which are inter-connected via multiple 10 GbE links. BNIX, whose members are directly inter-connected, delivers dramatically improved connection quality and increased Internet access speeds to its users.
“As our membership grew and their applications became more bandwidth-intensive, our IP traffic scaled accordingly but adding capacity to our existing architecture became increasingly cumbersome and cost prohibitive,” said Jan Torreele, Technical Director BNIX. “Deploying the Force10 E1200, with its purpose-built operating system and greater port density, provided us with the energy efficiency and the reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) we needed to keep our costs competitive for our members.”
By deploying the ExaScale platform, BNIX has leveraged the modular Force10 operating system (FTOS) software to design the most efficient network core that satisfied their need to provide reliable, high performance connections between its subscribing members while minimizing the physical footprint, power and cooling costs of its network. The E1200 offers scalable unicast and multicast routing for advanced services networks, delivering an industry-leading total throughput of more than two billion packets per second across a switching fabric capacity of 3.5 Tbps, or 125 Gbps of raw capacity per slot. Also contributing to the smaller footprint and lower TCO was the ExaScale’s ability to support up to 140 line-rate 10 GbE SFP+ ports per chassis.
BNIX joins a growing list of Internet exchanges around the world that have standardized on Force10 switches to deliver cost-effective and reliable GbE and 10 GbE services to their customers. In the U.S., the three largest Internet exchanges have deployed Force10 Ethernet technology to connect hundreds of customers. Moreover, one of the leading exchanges in Central Europe and the leading exchange in Japan also power their peering services with Force10.
“Force10 has maintained a deep and rich heritage with Internet exchange customers because of the inherent cost, latency and bandwidth benefits that they have been able to pass along through direct interconnections and superior routing efficiencies,” said Steve Garrison, vice president, marketing, Force10 Networks. “By leveraging the non-blocking, line-rate 10 GbE throughput and the efficiency characteristics provided by FTOS, the E1200 provides BNIX the robust network core it needs to deliver flexible, on-demand peering services that can scale and respond to changing conditions.”

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is a global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business. The company’s high performance solutions are designed to deliver new economics by virtualizing and automating Ethernet networks. Force10’s high density and resilient Ethernet switching and routing products increase network availability, agility and efficiency while reducing power and cooling costs. Force10 provides 24x7 service and support capabilities to its global customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information on Force10 Networks, please visit www.force10networks.com.
Contact:
Kevin Kimball
Force10 Networks Inc.
+1 408 571-3544
kkimball@force10networks.com
Force10 Networks, the Force10 Networks logo, Force10, E-Series, Traverse, and TraverseEdge are registered trademarks and ExaScale, S-Series, TeraScale, and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.