Nokia today announced the launch of FP5, its fifth generation of high-performance IP routing silicon. As the new heart of Nokia’s IP service routing platforms, FP5 will enable service providers to address today’s unrelenting requirements to efficiently scale network capacity, enable new higher speed IP services, and provide unmatched protection against escalating network security threats. Building upon four generations of industry-leading network processors, Nokia is raising the bar by adding support for high density 800GE routing interfaces, a 75% reduction in power consumption and new embedded line rate, flow-based encryption capabilities.  Nokia FP5-based platforms will be available starting in the first half of 2022.

When Nokia unveiled the FP4 platform four years ago it did so amid great fanfare, positioning its in-house silicon as a major advantage over its rivals. In the intervening time Nokia has made some major strategic miscalculations on its proprietary chips, especially for 5G, so this latest launch has been much more muted.  However, the FP5’s decrease in power consumption is impressive.

According to an interview in Light Reading, the power consumption reduction is partly a product of more a advanced semiconductor manufacturing process and partly incorporating more stuff on a single piece of silicon, thus reducing the need for interconnects. BT has long been a fan of Nokia routing silicon and is in at the start of this latest effort.

• Nokia FP5 network processing silicon delivers a generational leap in IP network capacity and power efficiency while introducing new capabilities for protecting network traffic from security threats
• FP5 is the industry’s first high performance routing silicon delivering integrated line rate encryption for L2, L2.5 and L3 network services at speeds up to 1.6Tbps
• Nokia’s fully programmable network processor is the first to bring 800GE routing interfaces for service provider applications to market while retaining the agility to adapt to new applications
• FP5 sets a new benchmark for sustainability in IP routing with a 75% reduction in power consumption over previous generations

As cloud architectures, 5G and Industry 4.0 continue to drive network transformation, service providers require mission critical IP networks to be increasingly secure, agile and sustainable. IP networks must provide guaranteed high performance and integrity in the face of growing threats from network-level attacks and security breaches. They must also be able to adapt to address unforeseen changes and to support service evolution over the lifespan of the network. In addition, IP networking equipment must become increasingly power efficient to minimize impact on the environment.

With the introduction of Nokia’s fifth generation FP5 network processing silicon, Nokia says it brings a new suite of IP routing solutions to market to help service providers transform mission critical IP networks to address these new and evolving requirements.

Nokia has long been at the forefront of providing an embedded approach to IP network security. With FP4, the company transformed volumetric DDoS defense with router-based detection and mitigation. FP5 brings an additional layer of network protection with the introduction of ‘ANYsec’ – a new line rate, flow-based encryption capability integrated directly into the chipset. ANYsec supports the delivery of secure IP services including MPLS and segment routing, on-demand and at scale without impacting performance or power efficiency. Service providers can now ensure the integrity and confidentiality of all data flowing through their networks.

With FP5, Nokia brings a generational leap in router network capacity to market. Nokia service router platforms are the first to support high-density 800GE and 1.6 Tb/s clear channel routing interfaces for applications including mobile transport, IP core, peering, BNG and provider edge. New FP5-based line cards will support 14.4 Tb/s (19.2 Tb/s with Nokia’s intelligent aggregation capability.) A new series of fixed form factor 7750 Service Router-1 platforms enable the benefits of FP5 to also be realized in smaller network locations.

Nokia’s FP5 network processors drive down power consumption per bit by 75%. As FP5 is backwards compatible with FP4 and fully integrated into the latest versions of Nokia’s Service Router Operating System (SR OS), all existing features are supported from day one on the new hardware. Through this aligned hardware and software evolution strategy, Nokia delivers unmatched and sustainable investment protection to its customers.

As a fully programmable network processor, FP5 enables the agility required to evolve the network as standards and applications change. Its deterministic performance combined with rich telemetry insight ensure network operators can drive a maintainable and serviceable IP network both today and into the future.

Neil McRae, Managing Director and Chief Architect, BT, said: “BT has a long-standing relationship with Nokia, and we are pleased to see that with FP5, Nokia continues to innovate to ensure IP networks have the scale, flexibility and features to help us stay ahead of escalating demand from our residential, mobile and business customers. In particular, we are very happy to see the focus on power optimization as we grow our network, with both BT and Nokia committing to significant reduction in carbon footprint. In the past 18 months, our lives have been turned upside down, and our reliance on networks has been dramatically increased and reliability for customers is crucially important. With security being ever more important for our customers, seeing Nokia’s approach to building more security features into the platform is fantastic.”

Hiroyuki Oto, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Core Network Development Department, NTT DOCOMO, INC., said: “Our network needs to continue to evolve to meet the demands from our consumers, communities, and businesses. With Nokia’s latest generation of silicon innovation and their careful attention to ensuring investment protection with the flexibility to adapt to new requirements, we believe Nokia is delivering the right foundation to ensure IP networks can efficiently scale and transform to stay ahead of ever shifting market demands.”

Christian Gacon, Vice President, Broadband Networks, Orange France, said: “We have had a long relationship with Nokia from the very first silicon processor release. As our network continues to evolve to meet the demands of our customers, innovations such as Nokia’s FP5 silicon will enable us to balance capacity, maintainability and security to deliver the best customer experience. Introducing this exciting innovation into existing platforms will ensure that we can gracefully evolve our networks as we look to manage both planned and unexpected demands in a sustainable way.”

Ray Mota, CEO and Principal Analyst, ACG Research, said: “Nokia does it again and shows its understanding and commitment to service providers, which has been key in its #1 momentum gain in the overall $12 billion service provider market. With the introduction of its fifth generation FP5 routing silicon, we believe Nokia is well-positioned to continue as a vendor of choice for service providers seeking to evolve their IP networks to become more agile, efficient, and secure all the while providing investment protection.”

Federico Guillén, President of Network Infrastructure, Nokia, said: “Of all the things that are surprising about human beings, perhaps the most surprising is our ability to be surprised. Our customers require their networks to be robust, agile and adaptable enough to handle everything life throws at them – from disruptive security threats to a global pandemic. FP5 is a significant step forward in performance, security and efficiency and – in combination with our software excellence and investment in network automation and tools – it opens the next chapter in Nokia’s long-standing leadership in IP networking and IP silicon innovation.”

“This is the industry’s most advanced network-processing silicon for service provider IP networks,” Heidi Adams, VP of IP and optical network marketing at Nokia, said in a phone interview.

Resources:

• Webpage: Nokia FP5
• Video: Master the unexpected with Nokia’s new FP5 silicon
• eBook: Master the unexpected with Nokia FP5
• App Note: Nokia FP5 silicon innovation
• Webpage: IP Network security
• Media Library: Nokia FP5 image

References:

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/09/21/nokia-launches-fifth-generation-routing-silicon-sets-new-benchmarks-for-ip-network-security-and-energy-efficiency/