CEOs of both Cisco and Juniper—two companies which are in the thick of a global battle for the core router (the equipment which drives the Internet traffic between Internet backbones) market—making back-to-back visits to the land of the Taj! What can one make of it—apart from the tourists’ fascination for the marble tomb? If one is to take what the two companies have been saying lately, the next battle for router supremacy might be fought in India. Then, that surely makes India a must-visit destination for two of the most celebrated CEOs of the networking industry, John Chambers of Cisco and Scott Kriens of Juniper.

Is this just fanciful imagination or is there some substance in it? Take for instance some recent developments. VSNL, the country’s premier ISP reciprocates to bandwidth demand by implementing the country’s first Gibabit-routed network. Also, this is a time when every communications service is getting deregulated—mobile services, basic services, IP infrastructure services, long distance communications, international telephony (could be deregulated any time), and Internet telephony (again, anytime)… Many of the new service providers are expected to follow in VSNL’s footsteps.

In these networks, routers will be playing various roles. They will act as the gateways for large networks connecting to international submarine networks. On the domestic front, these will be required in large traffic exchanges. And on both fronts, it will carry all kinds of traffic—be it Internet, voice telephony, software services, Intranet, VPN and so on.

10 Gbps horsepower routing: Only Juniper and Cisco have it so far.
Juniper M160 OC-192 Line Card	Cisco GSR OC-192 Line Card

Every alternate telecom, utility and transport company is announcing that it will lay optical fiber as the core infrastructure to provide bouquets of different services. It is no secret that they will all need to employ powerful routers in their networks. But the question is when will they start buying the equipment (including routers) from the communications equipment vendors? After all, none of these dream weavers have so far announced concrete deadlines or come out with equipment buying plans.

Both Cisco and Juniper are not really worried. "By the end of 2001, there will be someone who will say—here I am and then the action will start", says Rajeev Chopra, head marketing, Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd. Juniper’s head in India, Karthik Natarajan, says, "The market here has not developed to the extent where people need high speeds beyond E3. However, most of the service providers who are laying fiber today want to build next generation networks at the fastest speeds so that they can be ready for the Internet explosion."

Also there is paradox in play here! As 10 Gbps core routers become the rage in the US and the European backbones, in India, even some of the edge routers (capable of Gigabit speeds) of these companies, are more than what is required. Leave alone private sector ISPs, even VSNL, the state run monopoly, supports a network of 200-odd ISPs and also provides corporate connectivity to leased line customers, does not have that kind of capacity. Then why do you need the core routers? Says Karthik, "Once there is fiber on the ground, and people have realized that the bandwidth costs have gone down, there is going to be a lot of rush and then the high speed links aggregating onto the core will drive higher speed core interfaces."Both vendors agree there will be real action only towards the end of the year or early next year. So, till then what are these companies doing? Preparing!