Juniper Networks MX204
Ultra-high 10GbE/100GbE density in a compact, space- and power-optimized form factor

Overview:

Unrelenting traffic growth—driven by higher speeds, more subscribers, mobile penetration, cloud adoption, and ubiquitous video consumption—is straining traditional service provider and enterprise networks.

To accommodate this reality, Juniper’s Secure Automated Distributed Cloud solution helps service providers react to changing market conditions and accelerate service delivery with world-class products and innovative architectural components. The MX Series is an integral part of this solution.

Powered by the Junos OS and programmable Trio/Si5 silicon chipset, MX Series platforms deliver powerful routing, switching, security, and services features that help operators successfully transform their networks — and their businesses — in today’s hyper-connected world.

Product Description

The continuous expansion of mobile, video, and cloud-based services is disrupting traditional networks and impacting the businesses that rely on them. While annual doubledigit traffic growth requires massive resource investments to prevent congestion and accommodate unpredictable traffic spikes, capturing return on that investment can be elusive. Emerging trends such as 5G mobility, Internet of Things (IoT) communications, and the continued growth of cloud networking promise even greater network challenges in the near future. The Juniper Networks® MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform delivers the industry’s first end-to-end infrastructure security solution for enterprises as they look to move business-critical applications to public clouds. Delivering features, functionality, and secure services at scale in the 5G era with no compromises, the MX Series is a critical part of the network evolution happening now.

At the same time, traditional operations environments are increasingly challenged to meet consumer and business requirements for rapid service delivery and cloud-like network experiences. Issues related to monitoring and management are placing additional stress on already strained budgets and personnel, and promising technologies like Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and SDN introduce an entirely new set of operational challenges.

Our hyper-connected world demands more agile, automated, and scalable networks. Now more than ever, network operators need to transform their networks—and their operations environments—to accommodate this reality.

Utilizing state-of-the-art software and hardware innovations, MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platforms are helping network operators worldwide successfully transform their networks and services. Powered by the Juniper Networks Junos® operating system and the programmable Trio chipset, MX Series platforms support a broad set of automation tools and telemetry capabilities that enable a rich set of business- and consumer-oriented services with predictable low latency and wire-rate forwarding at scale, while providing the reliability needed to meet strict service-level agreements (SLAs).

An Agile Family of Cloud-Era Universal Routing Platforms

The MX Series portfolio was designed for agility and built from the ground up to support a universal set of edge applications, helping Juniper customers rapidly respond to evolving business and technical requirements while simplifying operations without sacrificing their current infrastructure investments.

With its massive scale and efficiency, the MX Series is ideal for space- and power-constrained environments. It redefines perslot economics, enabling customers to do more with less while simplifying network design, reducing OpEx. It also enables the profitable delivery of a broad range of business, residential, mobile, cable, data center, and cloud services while seamlessly supporting traditional and emerging network architectures with adaptive software and pervasive security. The flexibility of the MX Series is enabled by the programmable Trio chipset, which allows MX Series platforms to add support for new features, such as telemetry, without costly hardware upgrades. Additionally, support for the Junos Automation Toolkit and the Juniper Extension Toolkit provide modern programming languages that reduce costs and increase profitability by improving productivity and customization.

This agility is evident in the wide variety of MX Series use cases that have been proven in the world’s largest and most demanding networks, including:

• Business Edge: MX Series platforms support the broadest range of L2/L2.5/L3 VPN services which, in combination with multilayer, multiprotocol resiliency, ensure that customer SLAs are met under all network conditions.
• Internet/Peering Gateway: MX Series platforms support the high performance, reliability, scale, and density needed to efficiently peer with Internet and other service provider networks.
• Broadband Network Gateway (BNG): MX Series platforms offer the highest subscriber density and most sophisticated broadband edge features available in the industry.
• Universal SDN Gateway: The MX Series offers a comprehensive solution for interconnecting virtual and physical networks—as well as between virtual networks operating with different technologies—via support for Multiprotocol BGP (MBGP), dynamic tunnels using MPLSoGRE or Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) encapsulation, virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) tables, E-VPNs, and Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF), along with the ability to send traffic between VRF and global routing tables based on configuration and policy.
• Data Center and Cloud Edge: The MX Series is ideal for data center/cloud edge applications, with support for multiple overlay encapsulation methods, including VXLAN, Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), MPLSoUDP, MPLSoGRE, 802.1BR, SR-MPLS, and SR-V6. The MX Series also incorporates data plane security with inline IPsec/MACsec in the MPC-10E line cards, making it a perfect fit for data center and cloud deployments.
• Enterprise WAN: Enterprises and government agencies worldwide use MX Series platforms to build their own overlay network on top of a service provider’s Layer 2 or MPLS network, using encapsulation technologies such as MPLSoGRE, VXLAN, and IPsec for secure transport.
• Universal Metro/Aggregation: MX Series platforms offer a full suite of routing and switching features, allowing you to choose a deployment model that best fits your business and technical needs. The MX Series can be deployed as IP/IP VPN edge routers, Ethernet VPN (EVPN) and virtual private LAN service (VPLS) provider edge (VPLS-PE) routers, MPLS label-switching (LSR) routers, and as Layer 2 Ethernet switches or Layer 3 IP routers.
• Mobile Backhaul: In addition to switching, routing, and security features, MX Series platforms support highly scalable and reliable hardware-based timing that meets the strictest LTE requirements, including Synchronous Ethernet for frequency and the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) for frequency and phase synchronization. In addition, the MX104 is ETSI 300-compliant, enabling deployment in next-generation mobile applications such as 5G.

At-a-Glance: MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platforms Comparison

The MX Series portfolio includes a wide range of physical and virtual platforms that share a common architecture and feature set. This enables Juniper customers to select the platform that best addresses their unique business goals and satisfies their scale, density, resiliency, space, power, and value-added service requirements without compromising on quality or features.

Modular MX Series Platforms

MX960, MX480, and MX240 5G Universal Routing Platforms are modular, chassis-based platforms.

• The MX960 has been proven in the world’s largest service provider, cable, mobile, and data center networks, offering 10 Tbps of system capacity in support of business and residential broadband services as well as peering and provider edge applications.
• The MX480 is a modular, 5 Tbps-capable router that supports a wide range of cloud, campus, enterprise, data center, service provider, cable, and mobile service core applications.
• The MX240 is a compact router ideal for space-constrained cloud, enterprise, data center, service provider, cable, and mobile service core deployments.

The latest generation of line card hardware for the MX960, MX480, and MX240 platforms delivers multi-terabit crypto capabilities with 256-bit encryption complying with AES-GCM encapsulation per RFC4303; AES-GCM encapsulation per RFC4106; AESGMAC encapsulation per RFC4543; and AES-GMAC (IPv4/v6) encapsulation per RFCs 4302 and 4543. Along with multi-terabit routing, the latest MPC also delivers integrated Layer 2 MACsec features at flexible interface rates of 10GbE, 40GbE, and 100GbE.

Fixed-Configuration MX Series Platforms

MX204, MX150, MX104, MX80, MX40, MX10, and MX5 Universal Routing Platforms are fixed-configuration platforms that support modular interfaces.

• The MX204 is a space- and power-optimized router delivering ultra-high port density and throughput while consuming just 0.9 W/Gb. It addresses the emerging edge and metro Ethernet networking needs of service providers, mobile, web-scale operators, and MSOs by delivering 800 Gbps of throughput in support of high-density 100GbE, 40GbE, and discrete and breakout 10GbE and 1GbE interfaces—all in a single rack unit.
• The MX150 is a compact, full-featured router that supports 1GbE and 10GbE interfaces. It provides a cost-effective solution for a wide range of low-bandwidth provider edge, business edge, broadband network gateway (BNG), and enterprise WAN applications.
• The MX104 is a mobile backhaul-optimized, ETSI 300 mmcompliant chassis with high redundancy and 160 Gbps of throughput. The MX104 offers four MIC slots and redundant fixed 10GbE interfaces for flexible network connectivity.
• The MX80, MX40, MX10, and MX5 are software upgradeable from 40 Gbps to 160 Gbps, enabling cost-effective “pay as you grow” scale. These platforms have up to four Modular Interface Card (MIC) slots and two fixed 10GbE interfaces for connecting to the network.

The following table provides a comparison between the various MX Series modular and fixed-configuration platforms.

Table 1: MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platforms at a Glance

	MX960	MX480	MX240	MX204	MX150	MX104	MX80	MX40	MX10	MX5
Rack units	16	8	5	1	1	3.5	2	2	2	2
Systems per rack	3	6	9	48	48	13	24	24	24	24
Slots	11 MPCs	6 MPCs	2 MPCs	8 10GbE, 4 100GbE	NA	4 10GbE, 4 MIC slots	4 10GbE, 31 MIC slots	2 10GbE, 32 MIC slots	33 MIC slots	34 MIC slots
Per slot capacity	480 Gbps	480 Gbps	480 Gbps	NA	NA	20 Gbps	20 Gbps	20 Gbps	20 Gbps	20 Gbps
Maximum system throughput5	10.56 Tbps	5.76 Tbps	1.92 Tbps	800 Gbps	40 Gbps	160 Gbps	160 Gbps	120 Gbps	80 Gbps	40 Gbps
PDH	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA
Sonet/SDH	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA
Maximum 1GbE	440	240	80	24	12	80	80	60	40	20
Maximum 10GbE	440	240	80	24	2	8	8	4	1	NA
Maximum 40GbE	132	72	24	4	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Maximum 100GbE	44	24	8	4	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
10GbE DWDM	88	48	16	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
100GbE DWDM	22	12	4	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

¹ The MX80 has two front MIC slots and one rear MIC slot. The rear MIC slot only supports the MS-MIC.
² The MX40 has two front MIC slots and one rear MIC slot. The rear MIC slot only supports the MS-MIC.
³ The MX10 has two front MIC slots and one rear MIC slot. The rear MIC slot only supports the MS-MIC.
⁴ The MX5 has one front MIC slot and one rear MIC slot. The rear MIC slot only supports the MS-MIC.
⁵ Note, system throughput is calculated as (per slot capacity) x (number of slots) x (2).

Architecture and Key Components:

Modular Components for Chassis-Based MX Series Platforms

The modular, chassis-based MX960, MX480, and MX240 share the following components:

• Modular Port Concentrators (MPCs) provide routing, MPLS, switching, inline services, subscriber management, and hierarchical quality of service (HQoS) among many other features. MPCs may also host interfaces directly or via Modular Interface Cards (MICs) that allow users to “mix and match” interface types. Powered by the programmable Trio chipset, MPCs collect and stream telemetry that identifies resource utilization, loss and delay, and other metrics.
• Switch Control Boards (SCBs) feature an integrated switch fabric that connects to all slots in the chassis in a nonblocking architecture. The SCBs house the Routing Engine, control power to MPCs, monitor and control system functions such as fan speed and the system front panel, and manage clocking, resets, and boots.
• The Routing Engine (RE) provides the control plane, runs Juniper Networks Junos® operating system, and handles all routing protocol processes as well as the software processes that control MPCs, chassis components, system management, and user access to the router. REs communicate with MPCs via dedicated out-of-band management channels.

MPC-10E Line Card

The MPC-10E line card is a key contributor to the service provider transformation in the cloud era when deployed with MX960, MX480, and MX240 platforms in a Juniper Secure Automated Distributed Cloud environment. By providing the underlying network infrastructure with scale, agility, routing innovation, and pervasive security while incorporating universal (10/40/100/400GbE) ports, the MPC-10E protects existing investments with disaggregated software innovation and infinite programmability. Built-in automation enables rapid deployment without disrupting the existing MX960/MX480/MX240 footprint. The MPC-10E line card is powered by the new Juniper Si5 silicon, which enables the benefits highlighted in Table 2.

Attribute	Benefit
Performance	Triples MX960/MX480/MX240 chassis performance to 1/1.5 Tbps per slot with new SCBE3 fabric, enabling up to 10 Tbps throughput
Universal Interfaces	Reduces interface sparing with multi-rate 10/40/100GbE interfaces
Power Efficiency	Consumes ~0.5 W per gigabit per system level
Inline Data Plane Security	Features AES-256 MACsec line-side encryption and native IPsec tunnel support
Investment Protection	Backward compatible with existing MPCs and REs: PC3E/MPC4E/MPC5E/MPC7E/NG-MPC, MS-MPC, NG-MSMPC, MPC2E/3E-NG, and 16x10G MPCs; RE-S-1800 and RE-S-X6 Routing Engine modules
Seamless Deployment	Reuse deployed MX960/MX480/MX240 chassis, power modules, and fan trays

Junos OS

Junos OS is a reliable, high-performance, modular network operating system that is supported across all of Juniper’s physical and virtual routing, switching, and security platforms. Junos OS improves network operations and increases service availability, performance, and security with features like low-latency multicast, comprehensive quality of service (QoS), unified inservice software upgrade (unified ISSU), and Junos Continuity, which eliminates the risk and complexity of OS upgrades. With secure programming interfaces, versatile scripting support, and integration with popular orchestration frameworks, Junos OS offers flexible options for DevOps style management that can unlock more value from the network.

The Programmable Trio Chipset

The programmable Trio chipset is Juniper-developed breakthrough silicon technology that is implemented across the MX Series portfolio. Its innovative design improves business economics by enabling a truly converged platform with maximum performance, service agility, and exceptional power and thermal efficiency.

Trio has a programmable forwarding data structure that allows fast microcode changes in the hardware itself, as well as a programmable lookup engine that allows inline service processing. Furthermore, Trio’s programmable QoS engine supports coarse and fine-grained queuing to efficiently address the diverse requirements of core, edge, and aggregation use cases.

With its proven extensibility and agility, the programmable Trio chipset helps network operators worldwide successfully address their most complex technical and market challenges, and promises to meet the requirements of emerging applications for many years to come.

Network Edge Services

MX Series platforms can host optionally licensed Junos OSbased network edge services at scale, both inline on MPCs as well as on dedicated service cards. Hosting network edge services on MX Series platforms reduces network cost and complexity by eliminating numerous elements, operating systems, and interconnections.

• MPCs support inline services using the programmable Trio chipset; supported services include flow monitoring, 1:1 Network Address Translation (NAT), port mirroring, generic routing encapsulation (GRE), IP tunneling, logical tunnels, lawful intercept, and video monitoring.
• The MS-MPC and the MS-MIC provide dedicated processing for compute-intensive services such as carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT), IPsec, stateful firewall, deep packet inspection, flow monitoring, and load balancing.

Features and Benefits:

Unmatched Network Availability

MX Series platforms ensure network and service availability with a broad set of multilayered physical, logical, and protocol-level resiliency features, including Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology, which supports chassis-level redundancy while enabling users to manage two routers as a single element. Additionally, a multichassis link aggregation group (MC-LAG) implementation supports stateful chassis, card, and port redundancy, as well as subscriber and session persistence.

Application Aware Networking

MX Series platforms use deep packet inspection to detect applications, and they consult with user-defined policies to determine traffic treatment on a per-application basis, enabling highly customized and differentiated services at scale. Working in conjunction with Juniper Networks Contrail® Cloud Platform™, MX Series routers can also steer into complex service chains and stream granular data to analytics engines and back-office systems to permit real-time charging and end-user engagement at the application and content level.

Junos Continuity and Unified In-Service Software Upgrade (Unified ISSU)

Junos Continuity and unified ISSU features remove the downtime risks associated with implementing new hardware or upgrading operating systems.

• Junos Continuity eliminates OS upgrades and system reboots when adding new hardware to MX Series platforms; a plug-in package provides the drivers and support files needed to bring the hardware online.
• Unified ISSU reduces the risks associated with OS upgrades by enabling upgrades between two different Junos OS releases (major or minor) with no control plane disruption and minimal traffic disruption on the forwarding plane.

Junos Telemetry Interface

The Junos Telemetry Interface feature streams component-level data to monitoring, analytics, performance management, and visualization tools as well as to Path Computation Elements such as Juniper Networks NorthStar Controller. Analytics derived from this streaming telemetry can identify current and trending congestion, resource utilization, traffic volume, and buffer occupancy, which can be used to make informed decisions on network design and investments.

Integrated Timing

MX Series platforms support highly scalable and reliable hardware-based timing that meets the strictest LTE requirements, including Synchronous Ethernet for frequency, and the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) for frequency and phase synchronization. Synchronous Ethernet and PTP can be combined in a “hybrid” mode to achieve the highest level of frequency (10 ppb) and phase (<1.5 uS) accuracy required for LTE-Advanced, eliminating the need for external clocks.

Junos Fusion Provider Edge

Junos Fusion Provider Edge enables MX Series platforms to act as aggregation devices for the Juniper Networks EX4300 Ethernet Switch and QFX5100 line of data center switching platforms acting as satellite devices while appearing to management as a single, port-dense device managed by a single IP address. Junos Fusion Provider Edge significantly expands the number of network interfaces on the MX Series router while keeping operations simple.

Automated Support and Prevention

Juniper’s Automated Support and Prevention consists of an ecosystem of tools, applications, and systems that simplify and streamline operations, delivering operational efficiency, reducing downtime, and increasing your network’s ROI running Junos OS. Automated Support and Prevention brings operational efficiency by automating several time-consuming tasks such as incident management, inventory management, proactive bug notification, and on-demand End-of-Life/End-of-Support/End-ofEngineering (EOL/EOS/EOE) reports. The Junos Space® Service Now and Service Insight service automation tools are standard entitlements of all Juniper Care contracts.

Junos Automation Toolkit and Juniper Extension Toolkit

Included in Junos OS software, the Junos Automation Toolkit is a suite of tools supported on all Juniper Networks switches, routers, and security devices. These tools, which leverage the native XML capabilities of Junos OS, include commit scripts, op scripts, event policies and event scripts, and macros that help automate operational and configuration tasks. Additionally, the platformindependent Juniper Extension Toolkit provides a modern programming tool kit that includes support for:

• OpenConfig/YANG
• gRPC, Thrift, NETCONF
• JSON/XML
• API support for all modern programming languages
• Rich on-box scripting support using Python
• REST APIs

Together, Junos OS automation and programmability features simplify complex configurations and reduce the potential for configuration errors. They also save time by automating operational and configuration tasks, speed troubleshooting, and maximize network uptime by warning operators of potential problems and automatically responding to system events.

Specifications:

	MX960	MX480	MX240	MX204	MX150	MX104	MX80-MX5
Layout
System capacity	10.56 Tbps	5.76 Tbps	1.92 Tbps	800 Gbps	40 Gbps	160 Gbps	160 Gbps to 40 Gbps
Slot orientation	Vertical	Horizontal	NA	Horizontal	NA	Horizontal	Horizontal
Mounting	Front or center	Front or center	Front or center	Front or center	Front or center	Front or center	Front or center
Physical Specification
Dimensions (W x H x D)	17.37 x 27.75 x 23 in (44.11 x 70.49 x 58.42 cm)	17.45 x 14 x 24.5 in (44.3 x 35.6 x 62.2 cm)	17.45 x 8.71 x 24.5 (44.3 x 22.1 x 62.2 cm)	17.6 x 1.75 x 18.7 in (44.7 x 4.45 x 47.5 cm)	17.36 x 1.72 x 12 in (44.09 x 4.37 x 30.48 cm)	17.22 x 9.46 x 6.09 in (43.7 x 24 x 15.47 cm)	17.5 x 3.5 x 23.46 in (44.5 x 8.9 x 59.6 cm)
Weight fully loaded	334 lb/ 151.6 kg	180 lbs/ 81.6 kg	130 lb/ 59 kg	23.15 lb/ 10.5 kg	9.48 lb / 4.3 kg	32 lb/14.5 kg	30 lb/13.7 kg
Weight unloaded	150 lbs/ 68.1 kg	65.5 lbs/ 29.7 kg	52 lbs/ 23.6 kg	17 lb/ 7.71 kg	NA	NA	NA
Routing Engine
Default memory	2x16 MB NOR flash storage; 64 GB of DDR4 RAM; 2x50 GB SSD	2x16 MB NOR flash storage; 64 GB of DDR4 RAM; 2x50 GB SSD	2x16 MB NOR flash storage; 64 GB of DDR4 RAM; 2x50 GB SSD	32GB DDR4; 2x100 GB SSD	Xeon D processor running Wind River Linux 7; 32 GB DDR4 RAM; 400 GB SSD	4 MB boot flash; 8 GB of NAND Flash; 4 GB of DDR3 RAM	8 MB boot flash; 4 GB on NAND flash storage; 2 GB of DDR2 RAM
Number of cores	6 cores	6 cores	6 cores	8 cores	6 cores	1 cores	1 cores
Redundancy
Components	Power supplies, REs, fans	Power supplies, REs, fans	Power supplies, REs, fans	Power supplies, REs, fans	Fans	Power supplies, REs, fans	Power supplies, REs, fans
Power
Power input [AC]	200 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC	100 to 240 V AC
Power input [DC]	-40 to -72 V DC	-40 to -72 V DC	-40 to -72 V DC	-40 to -72 V DC	NA	-40 to -72 V DC	-40 to -72 V DC
Typical power draw (AC)	6520 W	3470 W	1860 W	260 W	140 W	325 W	365 W
Typical power draw (DC)	6670 W	3150 W	1690 W	260 W	NA	350 W	310 W
Environmental
Air flow	Front to back	Side to side	Side to side	Front to back	Front to back	Side to side [forced air]	Side to side [forced air]
Operating temperature	32° to 115° F (0° to 46° C) at sea level	32° to 115° F (0° to 46° C) at sea level	32° to 115° F (0° to 46° C) at sea level	32° to 115° F (0° to 46° C)	32° to 122° F (0° to 50° C)	-40° to 149° F (-40° to 65° C)	32° to 115° F (0° to 46° C) at sea level
Operating humidity	5% to 90%	5% to 90%	5% to 90%	5% to 90%	5% to 90%	5% to 90%	5% to 90%
Operating altitude	10,000 ft (3048 m)	10,000 ft (3048 m)	10,000 ft (3048 m)	6,000 ft (1900 m)			10,000 ft (3048 m)
Certifications
NEBS	- GR-1089- Core EMC and Electrical Safety - Common Bonding Network (CBN) - National Electrical Code (NEC) - GR-63-Core Physical Protection	- GR-1089- Core EMC and Electrical Safety - Common Bonding Network (CBN) - National Electrical Code (NEC) - GR-63-Core Physical Protection	- GR-1089- Core EMC and Electrical Safety - Common Bonding Network (CBN) - National Electrical Code (NEC) - GR-63-Core Physical Protection	- GR-1089- Core EMC and Electrical Safety - Common Bonding Network (CBN) - National Electrical Code (NEC) - GR-63-Core Physical Protection	NA	- SR-3580 (2007) NEBS Criteria Levels (Level 3 Compliance) - GR-63-Core (2006) NEBS Physical Protection - GR-1089- Core (2006) EMC and Electrical Safety - GR-3108- CORE Issue 2, December 2008 - IEEE 1613: 2009 - IEC 61850- 3: 2013	- GR-63-Core Physical Protection - GR-1089- Core:EMC and Electrical Safety

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Documentation:

Download the Juniper Networks MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers Data Sheet (PDF).