Juniper Networks continues to take dead aim at Cisco Systems with the latest member of its T-series family of routers . Juniper claims its T1600 core router has a throughput that’s about 25 percent greater than the most directly comparable Cisco router, while drawing about 30 percent less power.

Juniper claims a throughput of 1.6 Tbps in a single half-rack chassis, up to 3.2 Tbps in a standard-sized, full 7-foot rack – more than double the capability of competitive systems, understood to be Cisco’s.

By leveraging the company’s own JUNOS operating system and sharing components with existing T-series routers, Juniper said, the T1600 will offer a unique, seamless upgrade path for T640 routers.  Upgrading a T640 to a T1600 takes as little as 90 minutes and can be performed live, without interrupting service at all, according to Juniper product manager Alan Sardella.

As with all Juniper routers, the T1600 is fully policy-enabled and managed through the recently announced Session Resource Control (SRC) product family.  This approach maximizes service control and speeds the deployment of multiplay applications such as video-on-demand (VOD) and broadcast video, as well as many other solutions including fixed mobile convergence and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

The T1600 core router is expected to be generally available for deployment in the fourth quarter of this year.