By Charles Waltner, News@Cisco

Even networking technology needs a little TLC.

When an emerging technology requires a little help in hatching, Cisco calls on the Cisco Academic Research and Technology Initiatives group, otherwise known as ARTI. ARTI works in concert with experts across Cisco business units to identify, fund, and support university research programs and infrastructure projects involving the world's most advanced networking technologies. Such investments provide Cisco with exceptional insight into the technologies that will shape tomorrow's communications networks.

In one way or another research sponsored and managed by ARTI influences almost every Cisco product category, including wireless, security, high-speed optical transport, management, intelligent networking, voice-over-IP, micronets, router architecture, and streaming protocols, among others. These projects augment and complement research conducted by Cisco's various business units, as well as tapping into a far greater talent pool than Cisco could possibly support by maintaining its own research labs.

ARTI funds more than 45 university research projects annually, as well as being actively involved in more than 20 of world's most advanced data networks each year. The university projects create new technologies while the data networks give Cisco full-scale, real-life research networks on which to deploy, develop, and test its most advanced networking equipment and software.

ARTI manages three primary programs. The University Research Program (URP) is a grant program whose funds are managed by an external foundation. The funding comes with no strings attached so researchers are free to investigate new technologies without any commercial pressures, says Bob Aiken, director of engineering for ARTI. Researchers are not required to provide any technology to Cisco and can openly publish results of their work while maintaining control of the projects and retaining ownership of the intellectual property associated with their innovations. The research projects chosen for funding typically have an 18-month to 40-month development window, and grants range from $20,000 to $100,000 a year, Aiken says.

While none of the projects are expected to lead directly to any Cisco products, the URP-sponsored research exposes Cisco engineers and managers to nascent ideas that could spur other innovations at Cisco, Aiken adds. For each research project funded by URP, ARTI recruits an engineer within Cisco who serves as a "champion" to track a specific URP research project-confirming the researchers are applying the grant money appropriately while learning about their discoveries. The champion then takes any insights gleaned from the researchers back to Cisco to disseminate among the company's engineers, who might use the information for additional insight into their own work.

Aiken says URP also provides a connection to top university professors and serves as a recruitment tool for student talent. But most importantly, URP helps advance networking technologies as a whole. And any advances that are good for the industry are also good for Cisco and its customers.

"All ships rise as the water rises," Aiken says.

For university research projects with more practical research goals, ARTI runs the Cisco Applied Research Development program (CARD). CARD offers an option to URP by supplying funding for shorter-term research with the intent of creating technologies that will lead directly to Cisco products. Unlike URP, ARTI does not use a foundation for project funding, but, rather, contracts with university researchers to produce specific technologies within 12 to 24 months. Also unlike URP, Cisco negotiates access and use of the intellectual property rights--patents—associated with any of the advances from CARD-funded research. Aiken says a Cisco business unit will often use CARD to explore and develop relevant technologies without having to dedicate their engineers to the task.

CARD is only a year old but now has several projects in development, including optical component research by the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), next generation router research by Stanford and UCSB, wireless research by an Australian university, and network security research by North Carolina State University.

ARTI's third program, Advanced Internet Initiatives (AII), manages Cisco's partnership with governments and organizations, which are building state-of-the-art data networks. It assists governments from the Americas to Asia and all points in between. Currently, Cisco is involved with The Netherlands' Gigaport project, California's CENIC academic network, and the National Lambda Rail Network, an optical research network under development in the United States. The AII program is complemented by a Cisco higher education program that focuses on technologies and challenges associated with deploying advanced campus infrastructures for universities and other academic institutions.

ARTI typically contributes networking equipment and expertise to build these networks in return for access to the infrastructures, on which Cisco can test cutting-edge equipment and networking software. And as a bonus, the AII program helps Cisco build strategic relationships with institutions and people involved with the world's most advanced networking technologies, Aiken says.

These projects sometimes require a substantial commitment from Cisco. The company, for example, contributed approximately $100 million in list-price equipment to the National Lambda Rail Network. But Aiken says these networks provide an invaluable resource to Cisco. Cisco uses the networks to scale IP and optical networking at unprecedented speeds, as well as testing networking technologies such as control planes, signaling software, network management software, and middleware for grid network management.

"There's just certain things you can't test for in a mock network inside a lab," Aiken says. "These networks are like the race tracks of networking. We can find out just what our stuff can do."

For example, the CENIC network, California's new research network for the state's universities and colleges, is the world's first long-haul, dark fiber-based network using pure, 10-gigabit Ethernet.

"This is a classic case of how much these networks can benefit our customers," Aiken says. "By being able to test on CENIC we can work the kinks out of our 10-gigabit Ethernet technologies so our customers don't have to."

Charles Waltner is a freelance journalist based in Oakland, Calif.