CRN looks at new networking products and services that have hit the market in the first half of 2024, including products ranging from Ethernet and PoE extenders, to improved wireless access points, to the latest in AI-focused networking technology.

Meeting The Need For New Networking Infrastructure

The networking infrastructure market in the U.S. continues to show strong growth, and networking vendors continue to develop technology to meet the needs of that growing market.

New York-based analyst firm Statista in July estimated that the U.S. network infrastructure market will reach an estimated $51.96 billion this year, with the service provider network infrastructure portion reaching $35.75 billion and the enterprise network infrastructure portion reaching $16.21 billion.

Total market revenue is slated to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate of 7.9 percent to reach about $76 billion by 2029, the company estimated.

[Related: The 10 Hottest Networking Companies To Watch In 2024]

That equates to a strong opportunity for solution providers in the networking space and vendors are responding with new technologies to meet that need.

It also means opportunities for vendors in a market that has seen consolidation. Reports in late July said that HPE’s planned acquisition of Juniper Networks, a true heavyweight in the industry, is on track with European Commission approval expected soon. This comes eight years after the acquisition of Aruba Networks by Hewlett-Packard, the predecessor company of HPE.

CRN’s list of the 10 coolest networking products of 2024 so far includes a cross-section of the kinds of technologies major networking providers are offering. They range from Ethernet and PoE extenders, to improved wireless access points, to the latest in AI-focused networking technology – and even a new AI infrastructure built by Cisco and Nvidia.

There’s a lot going on in the networking space. Read on to see just how dynamic this market is.

Juniper Networks AI-Native Networking Platform

Juniper Networks in January unveiled what it called the industry’s first AI-Native Networking Platform that’s purpose-built to leverage AI to assure end-to-end operator and end-user experience. Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform was trained on seven years of insights and data science development and unifies all campus, branch, and data center networking with a common AI engine and Juniper’s Marvis Virtual Network Assistant to enable end-to-end AIOps for deep insight, automated troubleshooting, and seamless end-to-end networking assurance.

With the new Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform comes two new Marvis enhancements: Marvis Minis, an AI-native networking digital experience twin to simulate user connections to validate network configurations and find and detect problems, and Marvis VNA for the data center to provide insight across the multi-vendor data center lifecycle.

Juniper also expanded its AI Data Center offering with new QFX switches and PTX routers operated by Juniper Apstra, the company’s multi-vendor technology data center fabric management, automation, and assurance software.

HPE Debuts Enterprise Private 5G, Plans Integration With HPE Aruba

Hewlett Packard Enterprise in June unveiled its new HPE Aruba networking enterprise private 5G technology aimed at making private 5G networks as easy to deploy and manage as current Wi-Fi networks. HPE Aruba networking enterprise private 5G builds on HPE’s 2023 acquisition of private cellular provider Athonet. The technology comes integrated with everything an enterprise needs to deploy a private cellular network and is integrated into HP Aruba Networking Central to let businesses manage both Wi-Fi and private 5G and wired networking all in one place.

Aruba networking enterprise private 5G is aimed at simplifying much of the complexity that comes with private 5G adoption and making it as easy to manage as Wi-Fi by using lightly licensed spectrum and providing the dashboard, radio management, spectrum access system, and SIM cards that might otherwise require working with up to seven different vendors, HPE said.

Extreme Networks Cloud-Managed Universal Wi-Fi 7 Access Point

Extreme Networks in January introduced two new products to help improve network connectivity, security and application performance for highly distributed enterprise organizations. The AP5020 is a new Wi-Fi 7 Universal access point operating on the 6-GHz spectrum to support high-bandwidth, latency-sensitive applications and IoT devices. The 4000 Series cloud-managed switches, the latest addition to Extreme’s Universal portfolio, helps improve setup time by eliminating nearly all manual configurations. Together with Extreme Networks’ ExtremeCloud Universal ZTNA, the two provide automated onboarding, configuration and policy enforcement to help businesses strengthen their security as they move to a Zero Trust architecture across their network.

The AP5020 supports bandwidth-intensive, latency-sensitive applications and IoT devices, and offers built-in dual IoT radios to support multiple IoT use cases simultaneously while elevating performance. It also offers PoE failover to ensure continued connectivity for mission-critical use cases.

Huawei Apollo Commercial 5.5G

Huawei in July launched its Huawei Apollo Commercial 5.5G, which it called the world’s first commercial 5.5G version based on 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program) Release 18. Release 18 specifications aim to deliver 5G-Advanced, the midpoint of 5G standardization, also known as 5.5G. Huawei called its Apollo version its way to facilitate the all-band evolution to 5G and scale up the commercial use of 5.5G.

The Apollo version adds intelligence to multi-band coordination, beam management, and energy savings to help accelerate efficient all-band transition to 5G. According to Huawei, the intelligent multi-band coordination leverages intelligent carrier frequency selection and aggregation to increase uplink and downlink speeds by up to 30 percent across diverse service scenarios. Apollo is designed to help prepare for 5.5G with support for spectrum pooling to increase spectral efficiency by 40 percent over traditional band division and carrier frequency configuration practices. It also increases energy efficiency.

Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI Cluster

Cisco in June expanded its AI partnerships with the introduction of the Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI cluster, a technology that combines Cisco AI-native networking with Nvidia accelerated computing, and AI software and data storage from New York-based Vast Data. The Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI cluster is an on-premises technology that features a centralized system for designing, deploying, monitoring and managing AI pods and data center workloads. It offers automated, cloud-managed operations across a unified compute and networking fabric that includes Cisco Silicon One networking processor technology integrated with Nvidia’s accelerated computing and AI enterprise software, as well as the Vast Data Platform that offers unified storage, database and a data-driven function engine built for AI.

The Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI cluster is slated for early access availability for customers late this year.

Fortinet FortiGate Rugged 70G with 5G Dual Modem

Fortinet in February unveiled a new compact, ruggedized appliance designed to provide enhanced secure networking capabilities and 5G connectivity to OT (operational technology) environments. Backed by the company’s fifth-generation Fortinet Security Processing Unit (SP5), the FortiGate Rugged 70G with 5G Dual Modem provides significant networking performance, FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services, and high availability through a 5G dual modem to address a variety of use cases in harsh, remote environments, including full-service remote ATMs in the banking industry.

The FortiGate Rugged 70G with 5G Dual Modem brings 5G connectivity to the Fortinet portfolio of rugged next-generation firewalls for the first time. Fortinet said this converges enterprise-grade threat protection with high-performing networking capabilities like SD-WAN and zero-trust network access while delivering industry-leading wireless WAN functionality to ensure high availability.

CommScope GigaREACH XL

CommScope in April unveiled its GigaREACH XL, the latest addition to its SYSTIMAX portfolio, to double the reach of traditional twisted pair Ethernet devices on enterprise networks, which the company said are increasingly expected to power and connect operational devices such as security cameras, access control panels, and wireless access points beyond the telecom room and beyond the 100-meter limit established by commercial building standards.

The GigaREACH XL connects and powers devices beyond the 100-meter limit with one cable and with little or no disruption to existing services. It requires no additional telecom rooms, PoE (Power over Ethernet) extenders, or optical equipment to help ensure fewer points of failure, lower installation costs, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. It supports 100Mbps Ethernet and 90W PoE up to 200 meters, 1Gbps Ethernet and 90W PoE up to 150 meters, and 10Mbps Ethernet and 90W PoE up to 250 meters.

Arista Etherlink AI

Arista Networks in June unveiled its Arista Etherlink AI platforms, which the company said were built to deliver optimal network performance for high-performance AI workloads including training and inferencing. The Arista Etherlink AI portfolio is powered by the company’s new AI-optimized Arista EOS features and supports AI cluster sizes ranging from thousands to 100,000s of XPUs with efficient 1- and 2-tier network topologies to help provide high application performance compared to more complex multi-tier networks while offering advanced monitoring capabilities including flow-level visibility.

Included in the Arista Etherlink AI platform are the 7060X6 AI Leaf switch family, which employs Broadcom Tomahawk 5 silicon with a capacity of 51.2 Tbps and support for 64 800G or 128 400G Ethernet ports; the 7800R4 AI Spine; the 4th generation of Arista’s flagship 7800 modular systems with the latest Broadcom Jericho3-AI processors to support up to 460 Tbps in a single chassis; and the 7700R4 AI Distributed Etherlink Switch (DES), which supports the largest AI clusters.

A single-tier network topology with Etherlink platforms can support over 10,000 XPUs, while a 2-tier network with Etherlink can support more than 100,000 XPUs, the company said.

Cambium cnMatrix Switch Portfolio

Cambium Networks in May unveiled an expansion of its cnMatrix switch portfolio with enhanced network automation and a new fiber aggregation switch. These additions extend Cambium Networks’ ONE Network technology to help simplify deployment and operation of wired and wireless LAN and broadband technologies from the WAN edge-to-end devices.

The company’s new cnMatrix EX3024F fiber aggregation switch extends Cambium’s EX3000 series of switches with new advanced features. It offers 24 SFP+ 10 Gbps fiber ports, dual internal power supplies, and L2/L3 switching capabilities, and can aggregate over Cambium EX- or TX-series switches, servers, or other network systems for up to 80 Gbps uplinks and downlinks.

The cnMatrix also provides out-of-the-box automation to configure an end-to-end Cambium network, including policy-based automation with a rules-based system to automate ongoing network moves, adds, and changes without the need to touch the network while helping stop security breaches on unused ports by ensuring only authorized devices gain network access.

Allied Telesis TQ7403 Wi-Fi 6E Wireless Access Point

Allied Telesis in June launched its TQ7403 Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) wireless access point which the company said provides high-performance wireless, efficient bandwidth distribution, and seamless connectivity. The TQ7403 comes with a tri-radio system supporting 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. The 6GHz band support helps minimize interference to improve smooth and efficient connectivity in high-density environments. The TQ7403 configurations and features are accessible via the company’s Autonomous Wave Controller (AWC) wireless management platform.

The TQ7403 supports virtual access points and multiple SSIDs to cater to diverse user needs, and upcoming firmware updates will unlock further capabilities.