Juniper Networks’ launches Beyond Labs Initiative

Juniper Networks has unveiled Juniper Beyond Labs, a new initiative focused on shaping the future of the networking and IT industries with pioneering research, pathfinding projects and experimental technology developments. Juniper Beyond Labs will leverage innovation centers in Sunnyvale, Bengaluru, India and Westford, Massachusetts. Juniper Beyond Labs will collaborate with a community of academic and industry partners with a goal of breaking new ground for sustainable leading edge networking technologies to help meet the future needs of a digital world.

Almost every aspect of the global economy now touches the network in some way, and this will only continue as AI, machine learning and cloud services continue to proliferate alongside an exponential increase in connected users and devices. This has created opportunities, but also infrastructure complexities, security vulnerabilities and environmental challenges that require new ways of deploying and managing network technology to improve the experience of network users and operators. Juniper Beyond Labs will help incubate big ideas and innovative solutions to the world’s toughest technology challenges.

For Juniper customers and partners, such as Eurofiber and Intel, along with the broader academic community like Purdue University, Juniper Beyond Labs will provide an opportunity to influence research directions and pathfinding projects. The resulting contributions could spur proof-of-concept demos and the ability to provide feedback to shape the direction of research. Participating members, will also have access to Juniper Beyond Labs research and innovation developed. As an example, Juniper will be extending its collaboration with Intel and work on the integration of the Intel FlexRAN Reference Architecture, private 5G networks, Juniper RAN Intelligent Controller and the Juniper Cloud-Native Router on Intel Xeon processors, to enable new capabilities to support 5G transformation. 

Juniper Beyond Labs research will focus on a cross section of networking domains, including IT, Data Center, Security, AI/Automation, Network Operations, WAN and 5G/6G along with emerging areas, like Quantum Computing, where research is ongoing. In particular, Juniper Beyond Labs will prioritize sustainability as an integral part of network design principles and related use cases to help network operators meet sustainability targets. For example, the Juniper RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) platform today offers energy savings features such as traffic steering that allows efficient utilization of network resources to meet capacity demands while avoiding additional capital investments.

While Juniper Beyond Labs is officially launching today, it has already developed the award-winning Juniper RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and the disruptive Juniper Cloud-Native Router (JCNR) which takes full advantage of container economics and operational efficiencies to provide service providers flexibility in deploying 5G.