IPv6 Products and Solutions from ZTE

Release Date:2005-06-22 Author:Luo Jian, Liu Jü mei Click:

In 2004, ZTE passed the complete certification test named IPv6 Ready that was sponsored by BII, the only test certification institution in China appointed by the IPv6 forum. ZTE, therefore, became the first equipment vendor to have passed the certification test in China. This was a milestone of the commercialization of the IPv6 technology in China, and proved that ZTE has already been on the list of companies with the most advanced IPv6 technologies.

 

 

Although IPv6 has been developed for a long time, its real large-scale deployment and application started just a few years ago. Presently, a lot of countries have established their experimental IPv6 networks, such as the 6Bone and the 6Init. Some network carriers, such as IIJ and KDDI in Japan, begin to provide commercial IPv6 access services. China has also established its experimental network, the 6TNET, and is planning the construction of a brand-new IPv6 network, the China Next Generation Internet (CNGI).

1 ZTE´s Solution of IPv6 Network
ZTE Corporation started its research of IPv6 in 2000. The successful release of its ZXROS operating platform makes all of its routers and switches support IPv6/IPv4. The ZXROS supports all the technologies for smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Those include the double stack, the tunnel mechanism (manual tunneling, tunnel broker and 6to4 tunneling), the MPLS-based transition mechanism (e.g. 6PE) and the protocol conversion-based transition mechanism (e.g. Network Address Translation-Protocol Translation (NAT-PT)).

    The IPv6/IPv4 network solution shown in Figure 1 adopts the router series and Ethernet switches of ZTE.
The solution adopts diversified transition technologies, including NAT-PT, double stacks and tunneling, for different network applications.

 

    Besides, considering the wide deployment of the IPv4 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), most IPv6 services have to access the IPv6 bone network through the IPv4 MAN. This may be implemented by the Multiple Protocol Label Switching technology, with no necessity to upgrade the core P router. ZTE´s routers and switches support the MPLS function, and implements multiple MPLS-based technologies for transition from IPV4 to IPV6, which is detailed as the following:
(1)The Customer Edge Router (CE) users the tunneling technology, with no necessity to change the P router and Provider Edge Router (PE). The fact is that the transparent transmission of IPv6 data is realized in the customer network by the IPv4 tunneling technology, and that the IPv6 data encapsulated by the IPv4 network will be sent to the MPLS core network. Therefore, no changes to the P router and PE are necessary.

(2)The MPLS-based Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) implements the transmission of IPv6 data. In order to divide the IPv6 traffic from the IPv4 traffic, the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) was initiated at the port that interconnects CE and PE. The VLAN is used to identify the IPv6 data traffic. Meanwhile, the IPv4-based MPLS doesn´t need any changes.

(3)The 6PE technology is used. In fact, it is to configure the IPv6 on the PE router of the MPLS, with no necessity of updating the hardware and software of the MPLS core network. It won´t cause any influences on the existing IPv4 services offered by the MPLS, such as the VPN services and the MPLS-TE services. No tunnels and layer 2 encapsulation are necessary for the implementation of the 6PE technology. It may provide the MPLS-VPN and the MPLS-TE. The P router runs ordinary MPLS protocols and various inner gateway protocols. The PE is upgraded to a double stack router, and runs the MPLS at the interface with the core network. It is being configured, according to the practical demands, to support either IPv6 or IPv4 at the interface with the CE router. According to the connection situations between 6PE routers, any kind of router protocols can be used for the exchange between the IPv4 and IPv6 routing information. Therefore, the transition will be realized between the IPv4 and IPv6 messages at the non-MPLS interfaces. In the MPLS domain, the exchange of accessible information between the 6PEs adopts the MP-BGP protocol. Besides, all the P and PE routers in the domain use the same inner IPv4 gateway protocol (such as OSPF or IS_IS). The 6PE router labels two MPLS on an encapsulated IPv6 message. Assigned by the LDP, the upper label is used by the core P router and implements the message transfer to the destination 6PE router through the IPv4 router protocol. On the other hand, the bottom label is associated with the destination´s address prefix, and implements the routing to the destination address though the MP-BGP protocol.

2 ZTE´s IPv6 Product  Series
As an integrated operating system of the ZTE network equipment, the ZXROS operating system platform realizes perfect IPv6 functions. ZTE´s available router series and the switch series all adopt the ZXROS operating system. All the ZXROS-based products support both the IPv4 and the IPv6 technologies, such as the IPv4/IPv6 static routing, and the multiple dynamic routing protocols like RIP/RIPng, OSPFv1/v2/v3, IS-ISv4/v6 and BGP4/BGP4+. Moreover, supporting massive capacity routing table items, they have a powerful routing capability and may meet the application requirements of different layers of the diversified networks.

    ZTE´s ZXR10 routers and switches support the IPv4/IPv6 double-protocol stacks, as well as high-speed IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms, including the manual general tunneling and the automatic 6To4 tunneling.

2.1 Routers
(1)ZXR10 T128/64E core/convergence routers
    ZXR10 T128 is a telecom-level, core router product independently developed by ZTE. It is the best choices for carriers and national bone network nodes of large-scale industry networks. It is also the ideal equipment for the bone nodes of provincial networks and for the nodes of the interconnection center between different carriers.
ZXR10 T128/T64E adopts the advanced design concepts of modularization, distribution and scalability, and the Crossbar switching structure. It has good scalability with a maximum switching capacity of 640 G/320 G. ZXR10 T128/T64E supports abundant interfaces such as 10 G POS, 10 GE, 2.5 G, GE, ATM and FE. With the advanced network processing technologies, it may rapidly support diversified new services. Moreover, it supports the MPLS-based flux project and VPN services, the hardware-based line-speed NAT and multicast services, the functions like the strategic routing, the load sharing and statistics, and a perfect QoS mechanism.

(2) ZXR10 GER convergence router
    Its switching capacity may be configured flexibly from 8 G to 32 G according to various requirements to the equipment. It supports the high-speed interfaces like 2.5 G POS, GE/FE,622 M and 155 M POS and the
medium-to-low-speed interface such as E1. The system hardware supports QoS, multicasting and IPSec. It has the general router function, as well as the strong VPN, ACL and MPLS functions. It also has the outstanding network security functions, with excellent hardware and software firewall technologies and the anti-DOS attack function.

(3) ZXR10 GAR edge/access router
    With a module structure, the ZXR10 GAR Edge/Access Router has three independent types formed by the flexible configuration of hardware and software, and version upgrade. The equipment supports the interface rates from 64 Kb/s to 1 000 Mb/s, and provides the access of the following:

  • V.35/V.24,
  • channelized/nonchannelized E1,
  • synchronization/asynchronization serial port,
  • 10 M/100 M, and
  • channelized/nonchannelized POS 155 M and GE.

    In addition, it also supports the VoIP services and MPLS, ensuring the implementation of the flux project, QoS and the L2/3 VPN services.

2.2 Switches
(1) ZXR10 T64C-XG/T160C-XG MPLS core switches
    The ZXR10 T64C-XG/T160C-XG MPLS Core Switches are new generation large-capacity and high-performance core router Switches developed exclusively by ZTE. The ZXR10 T64C has a back plane with the bandwidth of 810 Gb/s, a switching capacity of  576 Gb/s, and a package transmission rate of 360 Mp/s. The T160C has a back plane with the bandwidth of 1.44 T, a switching capacity of 1 152 Gb/s, and a package transmission rate of 576 Mp/s. The design of the switches is based on modularization, adopting the multiprocessor parallel processing mechanism and the space division based system structure of the Crossbar. All the key modules may make the 1:1 backup. The ZXR10 T64C-XG possesses such abundant interfaces as 10 GE, GE, FE, POS and ATM, and supports the service functions like MPLS, NAT, multicasting, QoS and bandwidth control. The XG/T160C-XG has the capability of the L2/L3/L4 line speed exchange. The ZXR10 T64C-XG system features high credibility, high scalability and powerful service capabilities. It is primarily used in the core layer of such networks as the IP MAN of operators, campus networks, electronic government affair networks and the large-scale enterprise networks.

(2) ZXR10 T32C/64C MPLS convergence/core router switches
    The ZXR10 T32C/64C MPLS Convergence/Core Router Switches are specially designed to meet the requirements for broad bandwidth, the large capacity and multiple functions of the convergence layer of the IP network. The ZXR10 T32C/64C provides the L2/L3/L4 line route exchange capability totally based on hardware, the system switching capacity of 64 G/128 Gb/s, and 48/96 Mp/s line speed of L3 package transmitting capability. They support RIP, OSFP, GBP and multicasting route protocol, and a 256 K route table item. They integrate abundant service interfaces and service functions (e.g. MPLS, NAT, QoS and multicasting). Therefore, besides supporting the access of the existing basic IP (Ethernet) services, they may extend the QoS service of the IP network to the edge access layer of MAN.  It helps to easily add the value-added services such as MPLS VPN(DSLLANWLAN access) and multicasting services. Thus carriers can make full use of the MAN resources to develop basic and value-add services. The ZXR10 T32C/64C provide 8/16 slots, supporting the interfaces for different transmission technologies like 100 GE, 1 TE, TDM, ATM and POS. This flexibility allows carriers to gradually integrate the basic resources of the existing TDM/ATM networks into the broadband IP MAN and the architecture of the MPLS VPN.

3 Conclusions
As a Chinese equipment vendor who has early started its study and product development of IPv6, ZTE have mastered the key technologies on IPv6, and demonstrated its IPv6 double stack router at the IPv6 summit forum in 2003.

    This double stack router has successfully implemented the interconnection and application with the IPv6 equipment of other mainstream foreign equipment vendors in the IPv6 test, held by CAS.

    In 2004, ZTE passed the complete certification test named IPv6 Ready that was sponsored by BII Group, the only test certification institution in China appointed by the IPv6 forum. ZTE, therefore, became the first equipment vendor to have passed the certification test in China. This was a milestone of the commercialization of the IPv6 technology in China. In addition, it proved that ZTE has already been on the list of the companies with the most advanced  IPv6 technologies.

Manuscript received: 2005-03-11