SCIENCE

Crossbeam Systems announced the first network security platform that can scale to meet the real-world security performance requirements of 4G mobile network operators. The Crossbeam X-Series security platform now includes sixth-generation network processing blades and a major upgrade to its X-Series Operating System (XOS 9.6) to deliver unprecedented security performance and scalability to cope with 100 million concurrent IP connections and 640 Gbps of full duplex network connectivity. With analysts predicting mobile broadband traffic to increase 35 times over the next five years, the Crossbeam X-Series eliminates security as a barrier to growth for mobile network operators.

“As service providers expand their networks to meet growing data traffic demands, they are also under pressure to ensure the right security measures are in place to combat the rise in cyber crime,” said John Grady, senior research analyst, Security Products and Services, IDC. “This has created enormously complex and unpredictable network security environments. Crossbeam has a proven track record of providing scalable, high-performance solutions to address these issues. The enhanced X-Series advances this ability and should provide a solution for service providers that can securely scale and manage their networks.”

According to recent findings from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), smartphones consume as much as 24 times the data as traditional cell phones, while tablets can consume up to 122 times the data.² The proliferation of these smart mobile devices, coupled with the expanded capabilities of 4G networks, has created a significant capacity planning and management challenge for mobile operators. At the same time, smart phones and tablet PCs contain far more valuable data than do traditional mobile phones, which means that mobile devices are becoming a prime target for cyber criminals.

Mobile operators must not only increase network capacity to accommodate the massive growth in data traffic, they must also secure that traffic without creating bottlenecks that frustrate customers and constrain growth. The enhanced Crossbeam X-Series delivers the proven real-world performance and scalability to eliminate security as a bottleneck for mobile operators.

"Crossbeam’s X-Series has proven its ability to deliver the levels of security performance, scalability and manageability we require at Globe Telecom,” said Dennis Omila, head of the Information Security Division at Globe Telecom, one of the leading telecommunications companies in Asia. “We have relied on Crossbeam for years as the underlying platform for securing our infrastructure, including VAS (Value-Added Services). The enhancements to the X-Series are well aligned to support our evolving network requirements, especially as we look to expand capacity to meet the mobility and connectivity demands of our customers.”

Enhancements to the X-Series include:

• Increased performance and consolidation
• New 9610 and 9650 Network Processing Modules (NPM) enable the consolidation of four times more network security infrastructure. Now customers can now expect to consolidate an average of 100 one-rack unit security devices and related networking hardware on a single X-Series platform – greatly reducing their data center footprint and creating a more manageable and cloud-ready security infrastructure.
• The X-Series now delivers unprecedented security performance and scalability to cope with 100 million concurrent IP connections, 640 Gbps of full duplex network connectivity, and 140 Gbps of IMIX performance. For more details on understanding real-world security performance and testing requirements, please visit Crossbeam’s Performance Resource Center.
• The blades now include 16 SPF+ 1/10 Gbps ports each, expanding the port-density of a fully-loaded X-Series by eight times to achieve 64 10-Gig ports per chassis. This enables customers to handle four times the real-world traffic volume and further extend the life of their network security infrastructure.
• Improved management and usability
• A new Crossbeam Management System (XMS) featuring at-a-glance system monitoring allows IT security personnel to quickly gauge the operational status, troubleshoot and manage capacity across multiple X-Series platforms from a single intuitive interface – significantly lowering operating costs and improving productivity. The increased consolidation benefits of the X-Series combined with these management enhancements give service providers unparalleled usability and centralized control over their network security infrastructure.
• A new licensing structure offers service providers the much-needed flexibility to only pay for the performance capabilities they currently need, and to expand as requirements change.
• Increased efficiency and visibility into traffic flows
• The integration of NetFlow monitoring into the X-Series architecture enables service providers to easily measure the status and performance of data traffic on their networks. Not only does this provide critical visibility at key aggregation points, it eliminates the need to purchase additional hardware to support this function – greatly improving the cost and management efficiency of running a high-performance security infrastructure.
• Because not all data traffic requires the same level of security inspection, XOS 9.6 includes Traffic Steering³ built into the platform. This makes it possible for service providers to send specific traffic types, such as video or SSL, to different security services running inside the X-Series. This dramatically improves the efficiency of the system by only inspecting what is necessary to secure the network, thus optimizing processing power and lowering capital expenses.

Over 50 percent of Crossbeam’s business comes from service providers who rely on the company for delivering high-performance network security infrastructures. In the last two years, increasing data traffic volumes and the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices have made security performance even more challenging – driving the demand for Crossbeam’s solutions among mobile operators, who now comprise 25 percent of the business.

“Security performance is much more than vanilla speeds and feeds. While throughput and latency are critical elements, you also must consider the type of traffic and packet sizes involved for both current and future requirements,” said Chet Gapinski, vice president of product development at Crossbeam. “This is something Crossbeam has been acutely aware of in working with customers – including 16 of the top 20 fixed and mobile operators – and the improvements we’ve made to the X-Series are designed to ease the burden they face in planning and delivering intelligent, scalable and high-performing security architectures.”