Chapter 7. Introduction to JUNOS Services

Once the routing aspect of a network has been deployed, you'll want additional services to be added to fit your network requirements. In the past, a separate device would have performed these types of services, but in modern networking these tasks have been moved to the router itself. Service is a broad term that can include tasks that are performed at Layer 2 (such as link bonding) or at Layer 3 (such as Network Address Translation [NAT]). We will examine all of these services in this chapter, as well as provide additional detail regarding more specific services throughout the book.

Because many of these services require intensive packet processing on the router, you may have to install additional hardware to avoid any degradation in packet forwarding and throughput. Although this may seem to be a slight nuisance at first, it does solve the problem of increased services causing decreased throughput, as is observed in most other router implementations.