IN Brief:
- Planned Qumran3 support will extend OcNOS across open networking platforms covering access, aggregation, transport, provider edge, and core deployments.
- Qumran3D provides up to 25.6Tbit/s switching capacity on one 5nm device with Ethernet interfaces from 100G to 800G.
- The architecture combines high-speed routing with line-rate MACsec, timing functions, coherent optics support, and a common management environment.
IP Infusion plans to extend its OcNOS network operating system to open hardware based on Broadcom’s Qumran3 switching family, taking the same software environment from access and aggregation equipment into transport, provider-edge, and core systems. The integration is being previewed at SCTE TechExpo 2026 and remains a planned platform extension rather than generally available support.
Qumran3D, the highest-capacity device identified in the announcement, provides up to 25.6Tbit/s of switching capacity on one 5nm chip and supports Ethernet interfaces from 100G to 800G. Broadcom has integrated line-rate MACsec, while Qumran3D hardware can support 800ZR+ coherent optics for data-centre interconnection and routed optical transport.
Lower-tier Qumran3U and Qumran3A devices target access and aggregation systems where port density, deep buffering, timing, encryption, and compact hardware can matter as much as absolute switching capacity. IP Infusion lists SyncE, IEEE 1588v2, G.8275.1 timing, hierarchical quality of service, SR-MPLS, and hardware-accelerated MACsec and IPsec among functions relevant to those platforms.
The silicon integration illustrates how much carrier-network functionality now fits inside merchant switching devices. Packet processing, traffic management, high-speed serial interfaces, encryption, large forwarding tables, and timing functions can be combined around one ASIC family, allowing open-hardware suppliers to concentrate on board architecture, optics, power delivery, cooling, and system integration rather than developing proprietary switching silicon.
OcNOS is intended to provide a common software layer across those hardware classes. IP Infusion already supports more than 50 open platforms and says the Qumran3 extension will allow operators to choose equipment according to port density, capacity, buffering, security, timing, and physical requirements without introducing a different network operating system for each part of the network.
That becomes more useful as the traditional boundaries between access, aggregation, transport, and core equipment blur. XGS-PON, 50G-PON, DOCSIS 4.0, mobile backhaul, data-centre traffic, and cloud connectivity all increase capacity requirements further upstream. Adding a specialised appliance at every transition can solve the immediate bandwidth problem while increasing the number of operating systems, management tools, spares, and maintenance procedures that have to be supported.
Qumran3D also gives the software platform a route into much higher-capacity equipment. Its 25.6Tbit/s switching capability and 100G-to-800G port range target provider-edge, peering, core, and data-centre-interconnect systems, where routing scale and port density become more important. Native line-rate MACsec provides encryption without requiring a separate security appliance in the data path.
Coherent optics add another potential layer of consolidation. OcNOS incorporates management and telemetry for coherent pluggables, while Qumran3D platforms are intended to support 800ZR+ modules. Directly connecting coherent optics to router ports can remove dedicated optical transport equipment from some links, although optical reach, power budgets, operational practice, and topology still determine whether routed optical transport is appropriate.
Using one network operating system does not make all supported hardware identical. Buffer architecture, timing implementation, optics, SerDes behaviour, power limits, thermals, board design, and firmware can still vary considerably between platforms. Hardware qualification therefore remains necessary even when the routing software and management model are shared.
IP Infusion will preview OcNOS on Qumran3-based systems at SCTE TechExpo rather than immediately release a completed production integration. Performance qualification, interoperability, supported hardware configurations, and final availability remain subsequent steps. The announcement establishes the intended software and semiconductor architecture; deployment evidence will arrive only once the combinations have completed validation and entered operator networks.
The resulting proposition is less about one 25.6Tbit/s specification than reducing the number of software environments required as capacity increases through a carrier network. Merchant silicon has made the hardware increasingly interchangeable at a functional level, but achieving the same predictability across several open platforms still depends on validation well beyond getting the operating system to boot.
