Juniper Networks’ latest update to its MX routers includes new silicon and built-in encryption targeting 5G and IoT deployments.

The MX Series 5G Universal Routing platform is built on Juniper’s new Penta Silicon, a programmable 16nm processor with integrated security.

“This is the new silicon that is going to power the entire MX series going forward,” said Donyel Jones-Williams, ‎director of product marketing management at Juniper Networks. “And it’s an industry first: the silicon itself does all the processing of packets and also does encryption.”

Encryption will become even more important as service providers roll out 5G, Jones-Williams said. “As services move more to running on the public internet, businesses are requiring their service providers have the ability to encrypt their services so they can protect their own data,” he explained. “We’re seeing this as a fundamental element of 5G. Encryption is no longer an option that’s nice to have. It’s a must-have-slash-table-stakes.”

The silicon natively supports both MACsec and an IPsec crypto engine for Layer 1 and Layer 3 security.

And the new packet forwarding engine delivers a 50 percent power efficiency gain over the existing Junos Trio chipset, which leads to a 3x bandwidth increase for the MX960, MX480 and MX240, the company claims.

The routing platform also includes hardware acceleration for Control User-Plane Separation (CUPS). As service providers prepare for 5G deployments, the 3GPP CUPS standard allows customers to separate the evolved packet core user plane (GTP-U) and control plane (GTP-C) with a standardized Sx interface. This allows service providers to scale each independently as needed.

Juniper says the product is the first networking platform to support a standards-based hardware accelerated 5G user-plane in both existing and future MX routers to enable converged services (wireless and wireline) on the same platform while also allowing integration with third-party 5G control planes. The company expects this will lower total cost of ownership by as much as three to four times over software-based user plane implementations for MXs deployed in the field.

The new MX routers also include two universal chassis variants, MX10008 and MX10016, which the company claims reduces inventory management complexity by 80 percent and extends use-case versatility for operators with a single-chassis design. A variety of line cards and software are available for specific networking use-cases across the data center, enterprise, and WAN.

The MX10008 and MX100016 will be available during the second half of 2018. Juniper Penta Silicon-powered line cards for the MX960, MX480, and MX240 will be available in the first quarter of 2019. New CUPS support will be available in the first half of 2019.

In a statement, Verizon’s Mike Altland, director of network infrastructure planning, said the operator has been using Juniper MX routers for more than a decade and is “excited to see the unveiling of its next generation MX platform.”

Orange, another service provider and long-time MX router user, is “excited to see that the new MX 5G platform leverages new silicon with programmability and integrated security, and supports control user-plane separation to provide greater flexibility for certainty in an uncertain networking environment,” said David Roy, IP/MPLS NOC engineer at Orange, in a statement.