Juniper Networks says routing equipment previously sold to service providers and high end enterprises is being taken to a wider proportion of the New Zealand market, as higher end routing moves into form factors more affordable. Fourteen of Juniper's MX80 3D Universal Edge Routers were used in an extension of KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network), recently completed by Juniper Networks elite partner NEC. KAREN is a research and education network run by REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand). Juniper Networks' New Zealand country manager Ian Quinn says the deployment is a good example not only of New Zealand end-users taking up the routers, previously the domain of service providers and high end enterprises, but also of an early deployment of IPv6 in New Zealand. Mark Cordy, REANNZ deputy chief executive, says KAREN is an unconstrained network, allowing members to access as much information, tools, people and content as they require without usage-based charges. "As such, we need a network that is highly scalable, highly available and provides an open platform for innovation. The MX series deployment provides a scalable platform for our IP connectivity services as well as delivering a high-performance network infrastructure that provides fast and reliable delivery of applications and information.”Juniper released its smaller MX5, MX10 and MX40 Universal Edge Routers last year, with the MX80 3D Universal Edge Router released earlier this year. "We're getting a lot of interest from data centers and some smaller ISPs building background networks,” Quinn says.