Huawei vs Cisco vs Juniper – Part 1: The Core

Router Analysis has worked on a lot of deals where Huawei is one of the bidding vendors and the client asks us for a comparison: Huawei vs Cisco vs Juniper.  Router Analysis has done enough testing with all three vendors to give a comprehensive answer.  Here is an overview of the Huawei products and the comparable Cisco and Juniper products.  Contact us if you need more information.

Huawei Core Router

Huawei’s NE5000E-X16 is Huawei’s highest end core router.  Some of Huawei’s current  line card offerings include:

• 200G Flexible Line Cards
  • Two by 100GE
  • 20 by 10GE

• 100G Flexible Line Card (LPU-I) (2 sub-slots)
  • One by 100GE (takes both sub-slots)
  • 10 by 10GE (takes both sub-slots)
  • One by OC768 (takes both sub-slots)
  • two by OC192 (takes only one sub-slot)
  • 24 by GE (takes both sub-slots)

Huawei’s Edge Routers

Huawei offers the NE40E-X Series routers to fill the edge and small core.  These routers support a 100G flexible card that supports the same sub-cards as the NE5000E-X16.  The NE40E-X also supports the 40G Flexible cards.

Comparison to Juniper and Cisco

Cisco’s competition to the Huawei NE5000E-X16 is the CSR3/16.  Juniper offers the T4000.

Cisco CRS3/16 vs Huawei NE5000E-X16

• Supports up to 140G per slot vs 200 in the Huawei.
• Is a standalone 24″ wide, 84″ tall, 36″ deep chassis. vs the 17.4″ width, 63″ tall, 26″ deep NE5000E-X16
• Both systems support 400G/slot fabric
• Both systems have a multi-process operating system
• Both systems support multi-chassis

Juniper T4000 vs Huawei NE5000E-X16

• Supports up to 240G per slot vs 200 in the Huawei
• Fits in half a rack vs full rack for the Huawei
• 240G/Slot fabric vs 400G/slot in Huawei
• Both systems have a muti-process operating system
• Both systems support multi-chassis

Wrapping Up

The main differences between the three boxes is that Cisco and Juniper support 16 100GE interfaces per chassis while Huawei supports 32.  All three routers have multi-process operating systems and multi-chassis support.

All three vendors are promising fabric upgrades in the future along with matching line cards.  A very interesting space for sure.