Juniper Networks today introduced its most Ethernet-centric product to date.

The MX960 Ethernet Services Router, available in next year’s first quarter, is designed for use in core networks, aggregating traffic coming in from other aggregators. With a total capacity of 480 Gb/s, the new product is one of the largest, densest products of its kind on the market. Each line card in the 12-slot box can handle 40 Gb/s: one has 40 1 Gb/s Ethernet ports, and another has 4 10 Gb/s ports.

“We’ve had Ethernet in combination with a number of other legacy interfaces, but when the question becomes all Ethernet, the answer is the MX960,” said Jeff Baher, director of Juniper’s carrier Ethernet strategy.

With a mix of Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology, the MX960 is able to scale higher than a purely Layer 2 platform, Juniper said. Though the switching occurs at Layer 2, the product also contains many of the Layer 3 functions and routing protocols found in other Juniper products. And although all traffic coming into and going out of the MX960 is Ethernet, it’s not Ethernet as it crosses the switch fabric.

“It’s designed to let service providers choose what they want to switch and what they want to route,” said David Boland, senior product manager of Juniper’s Ethernet portfolio.

The MX960 will likely compete with Alcatel’s 7750 and Cisco Systems’ 7600. Its introduction is only the latest response from Juniper to repeated calls from analysts and customers for more Ethernet in the vendor’s portfolio. This summer, Juniper added Ethernet interface cards to its M- and T-series routers. All the while, Alcatel has gained ground in the market for edge equipment using a combination of Ethernet switches and edge routers.

Though some might have been expecting Juniper to introduce an edge aggregator, Eve Griliches, IDC research manager, said that Juniper’s approach makes sense in view of the fact that carriers typically build out their core first and move outward.

“[Carriers] can put this box in the core, and before they have to install a bunch of Layer 2 switches to mux up the DSLAMs, they can do the Layer 2 switching out of this box,” Griliches said. “As more DSLAMs get deployed, more Layer 2 switches get deployed on the edge.”