Problem

Branch offices often rely on multiple standalone networking appliances such as routers, firewalls, WAN optimizers, SD-WAN devices, and wireless gateways. Managing, maintaining, and upgrading these separate systems increases hardware costs, deployment complexity, and operational overhead. Introducing new services or expanding network capabilities typically requires additional hardware installations and on-site technical support, resulting in longer deployment times and higher maintenance expenses.

Solution

Our uCPE & SD-WAN Edge Platform consolidates multiple network functions into a single high-performance appliance, enabling organizations to deploy routing, firewall, SD-WAN, VPN, WAN optimization, and wireless services on one device. Built on a powerful x86 architecture with hardware-accelerated encryption, the platform delivers secure, high-speed connectivity while reducing hardware footprint and management complexity. New services and network functions can be deployed remotely through software, eliminating costly site visits and accelerating branch network modernization. Integrated cellular WAN and local wireless capabilities ensure reliable connectivity, business continuity, and flexible deployment across distributed enterprise environments.

Description

The uCPE & SD-WAN Edge Solution is built for operators running a branch estate who are tired of shipping a new appliance and rolling a truck every time a site needs another network function. At the regional hub and the provider point of presence, the problem changes shape: the site is no longer consuming branch services but terminating them, aggregating the tunnels, policy and traffic of every branch beneath it. This Solution consolidates that aggregation layer onto rackmount x86 platforms running virtualized network functions, so the hub scales by adding software and capacity rather than by adding another single-function chassis to the rack.

Powered by the Lanner NCA-4035A, the Solution puts a carrier-grade packet-processing engine at the head end. A 20-core Intel Xeon D-2798NT with 100G Intel QuickAssist keeps encrypted SD-WAN and IPsec throughput off the CPU at hub scale, where hundreds of branch tunnels terminate at once and crypto is the first thing to saturate. Ten Gigabit copper ports arrive with two pairs of LAN bypass, so traffic continues to pass through the appliance if it loses power or fails the property that makes an in-line box acceptable on a transit path. Four 10G SFP+ ports carry the fiber underlay, and the platform scales to 256 GB of memory with higher core counts available in the same chassis as VNF density grows.

Alongside it, the PICOPC NSHO-011 serves the workloads that need to survive rather than to forward fast. An 11th-generation Intel Core i5-11400 with up to 128 GB of memory hosts controllers, collectors, management VMs and the general-purpose functions a hub accumulates, on a platform built with RAID storage and a redundant power supply so a disk or a PSU failure does not take the site's management plane down with it. Eight Intel i210-AT Gigabit ports handle out-of-band and management connectivity, with optional 10G, 25G and 40G fiber where the role demands it, and the platform runs the same hypervisors and open network operating systems as the rest of the estate.

The two appliances are not two sizes of the same thing they are two roles in one rack. Packet processing, crypto and in-line transit sits on the Xeon D platform; storage-backed and management workloads sit on the redundant-PSU server. The VNF and SD-WAN software, the WAN and backbone circuits and the hub LAN all remain the customer's; the Solution supplies the platforms those functions run on. The result is a hub built the same way as the branches beneath it: software-defined, centrally managed, and expanded by deploying functions rather than by ordering hardware.

Features

• Hub-scale crypto offload 100G Intel QuickAssist keeps encrypted SD-WAN and IPsec throughput off the CPU where hundreds of tunnels terminate
• Twenty cores at the head end Intel Xeon D-2798NT with up to 256 GB memory carries dense VNF workloads
• Fails open, not closed two pairs of LAN bypass keep traffic passing through the appliance on power loss or fault
• Copper and fiber together 10 x GbE RJ45 alongside 4 x 10/25G SFP+/SFP28 for mixed underlay at the aggregation point
• Survives a component failure RAID storage and a redundant power supply keep the management plane up through a disk or PSU loss
• Room for the workloads a hub accumulates up to 128 GB memory for controllers, collectors and management VMs
• Two roles, one rack packet processing on the Xeon D platform, storage-backed and management workloads on the redundant server
• Scales in software new functions are deployed to the hub without ordering another single-function chassis
• Open platform runs standard hypervisors and network operating systems, so the hub is not locked to one vendor's stack
• Clean layer separation Solution supplies the hardware; VNF/SD-WAN software, WAN circuits and hub LAN remain the customer's

Specifications

Ideal For

Regional hubs and provider points of presence terminating the SD-WAN tunnels of a branch estate, aggregation sites where encrypted throughput rather than raw core count is the bottleneck, in-line transit positions requiring LAN bypass so a failed appliance does not break the path, hubs hosting controllers, collectors and management workloads that must survive a disk or power supply failure, operators consolidating a rack of single-function head-end appliances onto open x86 platforms, and any network team running hub and branch on the same software-defined architecture and the same console.