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A core router is a router designed to operate in the
Internet backbone The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet. These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network ...
, or core, or in
core network A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same buildi ...
s of internet service providers. To fulfill this role, a router must be able to support multiple
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
interfaces of the highest speed in use in the core Internet and must be able to forward IP packets at full speed on all of them. It must also support the routing protocols being used in the core. A core router is distinct from an edge router: edge routers sit at the edge of a backbone network and connect to core routers.


History

Similar to the term "
supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
", the term "core router" refers to the largest and most capable routers of the then-current generation. A router that was a core router when introduced would likely not be a core router ten years later. The local area
NPL network The NPL network, or NPL Data Communications Network, was a local area computer network operated by the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom), National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London that pioneered the concept of packet switching. ...
used line speeds of 768 kbit/s from 1969 and quickly upgraded to higher speeds. In the
ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...
, the Internet's predecessor, the "core router" was a dedicated
minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...
called an
Interface Message Processor The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET from the late 1960s to 1989. It was the first generation of gateways, which are known today as routers. An IMP was a r ...
(IMP), which operated at 56 kbit/s with at most six links. Following the implementation of these first two packet switching networks, link speeds increased steadily, requiring progressively more powerful routers until the mid-1990s, when the typical core link speed reached 155 Mbit/s. At that time, several breakthroughs in fiber optic telecommunications (notably DWDM and
EDFA An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback from ...
) technologies combined to lower bandwidth costs that in turn drove a sudden dramatic increase in core link speeds: by 2000, a core link operated at 2.5 Gbit/s and core Internet companies were planning for 10 Gbit/s speeds. The largest provider of core routers in the 1990s was
Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...
, who provided core routers as part of a broad product line.
Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including Router (computing), routers, Network switch, switches, network management so ...
entered the business in 1996, focusing primarily on core routers and addressing the need for a radical increase in routing capability that was driven by the increased link speed. In addition, several new companies attempted to develop new core routers in the late 1990s. It was during this period that the term "core router" came into wide use. The required forwarding rate of these routers became so high that it could not be met with a single processor or a single memory, so these systems all employed some form of a distributed architecture based on an internal switching fabric. The Internet was historically supply-limited, and core Internet providers historically struggled to expand the Internet to meet the demand. During the late 1990s, they expected a radical increase in demand, driven by the
Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
. By 2001, it became apparent that the sudden expansion in core link capacity had outstripped the actual demand for Internet bandwidth in the core. The core Internet providers were able to defer purchases of new core routers for a time, and most of the new companies went out of business. As of 2012, the typical Internet core link speed is 40 Gbit/s, with many links at higher speeds, reaching or exceeding 100 Gbit/s (out of a theoretical current maximum of 111 Gbit/s, provided by
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) is a Japanese telecommunications holding company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked 55th in ''Fortune'' Global 500, NTT is the fourth largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of revenue, as well as the third largest pu ...
), provisioning the explosion in demand for bandwidth in the current generation of
cloud computing Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...
and other bandwidth-intensive (and often latency-sensitive) applications such as high-definition video streaming (see
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...
) and
Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
. This, along with newer technologies – such as DOCSIS 3,
channel bonding In computer networking, link aggregation is the combining (wikt:aggregation, aggregating) of multiple network connections in parallel by any of several methods. Link aggregation increases total throughput beyond what a single connection could ...
, and
VDSL2 Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber lin ...
(the latter of which can wring more than 100 Mbit/s out of plain, unshielded twisted-pair copper under normal conditions, out of a theoretical maximum of 250 Gbit/s at 0.0m from the VRAD) – and more sophisticated provisioning systems – such as
FTTN Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
( fiber ptic cable/nowiki> to the node) and
FTTP Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
(fiber to the premises, either to the home or provisioned with Cat 5e cable) – can provide downstream speeds to the mass-market residential consumer in excess of 300 Mbit/s and upload speeds in excess of 100 Mbit/s with no specialized equipment or modification e.g.( Verizon FiOS).


Current core router manufacturers

(core router model between parentheses) *
Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
(7950 Extensible Routing System RSSeries, 7750 series) *
Ciena Ciena Corporation is an American optical networking systems and software company based in Hanover, Maryland. The company has been described as a vital player in optical connectivity. The company reported revenues of $4 billion and more than 8,50 ...
(Ciena 5430 15T, Ciena 6500) *
Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...
(8000 series, CRS (former), Network Convergence System 6000, ASR series)https://web.archive.org/web/20210515065755/https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/product-listing.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210405150040/https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/sp-products-solutions-services.html *
Extreme Networks Extreme Networks, Inc. is an American networking company based in Morrisville, North Carolina. Extreme Networks designs, develops, and manufactures wired and wireless network infrastructure equipment and develops the software for network managem ...
(Black Diamond 20808) *
Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...
(SSR series) *
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...
Technologies Ltd. (NetEngine 9000 (NE9000), NetEngine 5000E, NetEngine 80E, NetEngine 80) *
Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including Router (computing), routers, Network switch, switches, network management so ...
( Juniper T-Series and PTX Series) * ZTE (ZXR10 Series: T8000, M6000)


Previous core router manufacturers

*
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...
(acquired by Nokia in 2016) * Allegro Networks * Axiowave Networks * Avici Systems (changed name to Soapstone Networks in 2008 and no longer makes core routers) * Brocade Communications Systems (NetIron XMR Series) * Caspian Networks (closed in 2006, makers of core routers A120 and A50) * Charlotte's Web Networks * Chiaro Networks (closed in 2005, maker of Chiaro Enstara core routers) *
Foundry Networks Foundry Networks, Inc. was a networking hardware vendor selling high-end Ethernet Network switch, switches and router (computing), routers. The company was acquired by Brocade Communications Systems on December 18, 2008. History The compa ...
(acquired by Brocade in 2008) * Hyperchip * IPOptical * Ironbridge * Marconi (telecom business acquired by Ericsson in 2006) *
Nortel Networks Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec in 1895 ...
(bankrupt) * Osphere Net Systems * Pluris * Procket Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems in 2004)


See also

* Cisco Systems acquisitions * Edge router *
Network topology Network topology is the arrangement of the elements (Data link, links, Node (networking), nodes, etc.) of a communication network. Network topology can be used to define or describe the arrangement of various types of telecommunication networks, ...


References

{{reflist Internet architecture * Hardware routers