Nokia rolls out latest IP routing silicon with new encryption capability | ZDNet

Nokia on Tuesday introduced the fifth generation of its network processing silicon, delivering better capacity and efficiency, as well as a new encryption capability. The FP5 is designed for service providers that have to meet the higher broadband demands triggered by the pandemic, while at the same time addressing the spike in denial of service attacks. 

Nokia’s prior-generation IP routing silicon, the FP4, delivered volumetric DDoS defense with router-based detection and mitigation. FP5 introduces an additional layer of network protection with ANYsec — a new line rate, flow-based encryption capability integrated directly into the chipset. 

The options for encrypting network traffic are typically MACsec and IPsec. MACsec is silicon-based, and thus low-latency and cost-effective. However, its hop-by-hop architecture introduces risk and latency when applied to IP services like MPLS and segment routing. Meanwhile, IPsec takes just a single hop, but it’s slower and more expensive. 

Nokia’s ANYsec uses a number of encryption standards from MACsec while supporting encryption natively over MPLS and over segment routing. It does so at scale without impacting performance or power efficiency, Nokia said. 

Meanwhile, FP5 also supports next-generation router capacity. They support high-density 800GE ports, while the optics to support 800 Gigabit Ethernet should start becoming available on the market by the middle of next year. It supports up to 1.6 Tb/s flows, though standards have yet to be set for anything past 800GE. 

As far as efficiency goes, Nokia’s FP5 network processors drive down power consumption per bit by 75%. They are backwards compatible with FP4 and fully integrated into the latest versions of Nokia’s Service Router Operating System (SR OS).