A10 Networks Expands its AX Series Solutions with Large Scale NAT and Dual-Stack Lite

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- A10 Networks™, the technology leader in Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs), today announced the availability of IPv6 migration solutions for Carriers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) within its AX Series platforms: Large Scale NAT (LSN) and Dual-Stack Lite (DS-Lite).

Demand for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses is rapidly increasing for Carriers and ISPs with more IP-enabled devices pushing the existing available IPv4 address pool to exhaustion.  The popularity of applications on smart-phones and other mobile devices has further exasperated and accelerated this trend. As a solution, the progressive introduction and transition to IPv6 in network and service infrastructures shows a need for both IPv4 and IPv6 networks to coexist. The industry is currently focusing on DS-Lite LSN capable devices to address the IPv6 migration issue.

"A10 is working with several of the world's largest Carriers and ISPs with Large Scale NAT and DS-Lite solutions within the AX Series appliances. Our DS-Lite and LSN solutions leverage A10's revolutionary Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS) to deliver unparalleled performance and scalability," said Lee Chen, Founder and CEO for A10 Networks. "IPv6 migration technology is a strategic focus area for A10 with significant growth potential. The co-existence of IPv4 and IPv6 is very likely to last several years, if not decades. A10 continues to expand the AX Series solutions for Carriers and ISPs to become the technology leader in this early stage market."

Large Scale NAT

Large Scale NAT (LSN), also known as Carrier Grade NAT (CGN), helps ISPs continue to grow their business by alleviating the IPv4 address shortage with intelligent sharing of public IPv4 addresses among multiple customers.

Key benefits of LSN include:

• Standardizes behavior for IPv4 NAT devices
  • Consistent behavior and expectations for applications
  • Tolerance for varied traffic patterns and protocol behavior

• Defines behavior for NATs, which can be deployed in service provider networks
  • Fairness in resource sharing
  • Consistent, deterministic & transparent operation
  • Support for "pass-through" traffic
  • High-speed logging

• Delivers efficiency through features, and examples include:
  • Hairpinning
  • Sticky internal IP to external IP mapping
  • Endpoint-independent mapping and filtering

Dual-Stack Lite

Dual-Stack Lite (DS-Lite) encourages and enables incremental IPv6 deployment while leveraging LSN to facilitate IPv4 address scaling. DS-Lite outsources Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) embedded NAT capabilities to the carrier NAT device, hence preserving a single level of NAT. DS-Lite involves encapsulation/de-capsulation of privately-addressed IPv4 traffic into IPv6 datagrams as well as native IPv6 forwarding capabilities.

Key benefits for DS-Lite include:

• Encourages and enables incremental IPv6 deployment
• Facilitates a single IPv6 network to serve IPv4 and IPv6 clients
• Supports both native IPv6 and traditional IPv4 concurrently
• Leverages LSN to scale IPv4 addresses
• Single Layer of NAT
• Easier CPE address management
• Simplifies deployment and management

High-performance NAT Platform

The AX Series family is specifically built for processor intensive, high-volume networking tasks such as NAT, in addition to core Application Acceleration, Layer 4-7 Server Load Balancing and Security and DDoS protection features. The AX Series is built upon the revolutionary Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS), which integrates a modern multi-core, shared memory and symmetrical multiprocessing architecture for significant performance advantages. Additional benefits include:

• Carrier-grade, high-performance hardware and software platform
• Highly scalable session establishment rates and concurrent session capacities
• High volume of NAT packets per second
• Throughput up to 40 Gbps today
• Stateful high availability for robustness

Award-winning Implementations

A10's high-end AX 5200 with LSN was deployed in the Interop Tokyo 2009 ShowNet; ran successfully for the duration of the show; and earned two Best of Show awards. For more information, please visit: http://www.a10networks.com/news/2009/090615-Interop.php

Working closely with Carriers and ISPs in North America, Europe and Japan, A10 has demonstrated successful LSN and DS-Lite deployments and proven interoperability with DS-Lite client implementations. For more information on A10's LSN and DS-Lite solutions, please visit: http://www.a10networks.com/products/axseries-large_scale_NAT_DS-Lite.php

Availability

AX Series LSN and DS-Lite solutions are available now; please contact A10 for an evaluation.

About A10 Networks

A10 Networks was founded in Q4 2004 with a mission to provide innovative networking and security solutions. A10 Networks makes high-performance products that help organizations accelerate, optimize and secure their applications. A10 Networks is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. For more information, visit http://www.a10networks.com

SOURCE A10 Networks