Customer Success Story
NANOG provides fast, reliable internet to event attendees with Juniper
North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG), a community of network operators, engineers, and internet professionals dedicated to the ongoing advancement of an open, secure, and robust internet, chose Juniper as the official router provider for its meetings.
More than 1,500 network professionals who oversee some of the largest, most complex networks in North America, and around the globe, come together three times a year to be inspired, stay on the cutting edge, and build relationships with others who are equally passionate about advanced networking, and they require world-class networking as they collaborate.
5 TB
Of network traffic during a typical three-day event
99.9999%
Network uptime during events
800-1,200
Attendees rely on the event network
Flawless connectivity for a gathering of network experts
An exceptional digital experience at an event for network experts is a must. NANOG needed secure, robust, and accessible network connectivity that would support presentations, hands-on labs, event operations, and attendees’ digital activities.
NANOG’s existing event network needed an upgrade. While the network used Juniper routers, it also incorporated another vendor’s switches that lacked key routing protocols, making it difficult to achieve the necessary levels of reliability. Using different routing and switching platforms also created additional work for the network operations team, which operates under the intense time pressures of setting up and tearing down a network in days.
In advance of its October 2023 meeting, NANOG sought out a one-box routing and switching product that would deliver 99.999% uptime, easily handle the expected five terabits of traffic, and be simpler to operate.
Fast, unfiltered and transparent internet connectivity
NANOG adopted the Juniper Networks MX204 Universal Router for its primary core and edge networks to create positive, seamless attendee experiences at its meetings.
With 400 Gbps of throughput and a comprehensive set of routing, switching, security, and other networking service features, the MX204 router delivers high-performance, unfiltered, and transparent internet connectivity to NANOG attendees. Network convergence is fast if a disruption does occur, supporting its 99.999% uptime service level agreement (SLA). Both IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity are available, which eliminates the needs for firewalls and filters. The network is protected against Secure Shell (SSH) brute-force attacks and scans.
Template-based configuration and automation make it easier to pre-stage the equipment and quickly set up onsite. Configuration details can be easily tweaked for the next meeting. And the compact, 1 U MX204 router is physically easier to handle and ship than separate routing and switching gear.
Linespeed Events designs and manages the NANOG network. “Using Juniper routers makes our lives easier when setting up event networks,” says Con Reilly, Linespeed Events’ principal and director of engineering.
A better digital experience for event attendees
With Juniper powered routing and switching, NANOG can offer an enterprise-class network experience to attendees and members while streamlining the IT effort. The network typically supports 5 terabits of traffic during a three-day event.
The October 2023 event celebrated the 50th anniversary of Ethernet, saw the return of NANOG Jeopardy!, and took deep dives into fascinating topics like pushing 400G further, using a cloud-native internet telescope to measure adversarial behavior, and discovering flaws in BGP error handling.
Attendees easily communicated with their offices via VPN without having VPN or protocol filters in the way. They bellied up to the “10 gig bar” for a blazing fast, direct internet connection, whether they needed to download a software update or get their email really, really fast.
The Products
MX204
The SDN-enabled MX204 Universal Routing Platform provides a modular, automated, carrier-grade solution for service providers and enterprises. The compact platform brings 400 Gbps capacity and a full feature set to space and power constrained environments.
Published September 2023