7/24/2006 -- Juniper Networks Inc. last week unveiled the M120, a mid-range, 10 Gigabit-enabled multiservice edge router that's based on technology Juniper originally introduced with its upscale M320 routers.

As Juniper's latest play for the network edge, the M120 is geared for service providers trying to build out their next-gen IP services networks. It also fills a gap in Juniper's price positioning that -- whatever its technology bonafides -- should appeal to service providers, too.

"[C]ontinued evolution at the service provider edge has created the need for a smaller scale platform -- a gap the M120 will now fill. Juniper needed to have an effective mid-range platform to complement its larger M320, support high-density Ethernet traffic and to achieve lower cost points," says Glen Hunt, a principal analyst for carrier infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis. "The M120 also counters competitors such as Alcatel and Cisco who have aggressively pursued the edge market segment in recent quarters with the introduction of mid-range versions of their multiservice platforms."

There's a lot to like in the new M120, which can support up to 128 GigE interfaces with dual 10 GigE network uplinks, Hunt says. "Service providers can leverage the ability to oversubscribe the links to reduce overall deployment costs where full line rate performance is not required -- such as in the case of many emerging market opportunities and lower density rural deployments," he comments. "By improving the scale and cost without dropping the multi-service capabilities, the M120 can support a broad range of service migration services such as ATM, frame relay and T1 services. The M120 provides a degree of investment protection/reuse by using many of the I/O cards from the M40e, M160, M320 and the T-series. The new platform also touts multiple high availability and redundancy features that enable it to provide non-stop services in the event of an interface or system failure."

So much for the good. The bad -- or the not-so-good, anyway -- is that the M120 does have a few shortcomings with respect to competitive offerings from Cisco Systems and other vendors.

"The M120 platform...offers no direct support for BRAS functionality and relies on the E-series to perform that application, which is in contrast to competitors such as Cisco, ECI and Redback, who have integrated BRAS support into their respective edge platforms," Hunt concludes. "Competitors have met or exceeded the port densities of the M120 in areas such as 10 GigE rack densities." -Stephen Swoyer