ATLANTA - June 5, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced OC-192 (10 Gbps) capabilities for its industry leading ONS 15454 Metro Optical Transport platform, further extending Cisco's metro optical leadership and accelerating service velocity for its customers. With high-speed OC-192, the ONS 15454 delivers supercharged scalability and flexibility to meet service providers' ever increasing bandwidth demands while slashing the cost of 10 Gbps transport in the metro.

"Requirements for metro service providers are more diverse and dynamic than in any other part of the network. In order to achieve the profitable economics of fast and efficient service delivery, metro service providers need to be able to deliver multiple traffic types and to manage bandwidth intelligently over a variety of topologies," said Carl Russo, Group Vice President, Optical Networking at Cisco Systems. "The ONS 15454 is the first metro optical transport platform to deliver on these requirements with OC-192 capacity."

With over 600 customers and 25,000 systems deployed, the Cisco ONS 15454 is an integral part of Cisco's extensive IP+Optical portfolio and is the first metro optical transport platform to deliver supercharged SONET from OC-3 to OC-192 along with integrated optical networking and the industry's most scalable multiservice interfaces. The cost-effective plug-and-play scalability and flexibility of this platform substantially lower the first costs and lifecycle cost of metro optical transport and enable service providers to achieve new economics with intelligent services.

"OC-192 transport and flexible multiservice capabilities are key requirements in the metro optical space, enabling service providers to capitalize on high-capacity OC-3 and OC-12 revenue opportunities," said Dave Dunphy, Senior Analyst of Optical Infrastructure at Current Analysis. "Cisco's ONS 15454 offers both the scalability and efficient bandwidth utilization that carriers need in today's metro environment."

Service providers expanding their ONS 15454 platforms from OC-48 to OC-192 need only to perform a simple in-service card change while alternative solutions require new equipment purchases and installations or costly overlays. With the ONS 15454, service providers can increase capacity significantly, adding four OC-192 ports per ONS 15454 for a total of up to16 OC-192 ports in one rack, for a fraction of the expense incurred with other options. The ONS 15454 also supports Four Fiber Bi-Directional Line Switch Ring (4F BLSR) for OC-192 to deliver unrivaled transport capacity and reliability.

"We are deploying the first end-to-end Cisco IP+Optical network and the ONS 15454, with OC-192 support and multiservice capabilities, is a key part of Cambrian's metro deployment strategy," said Joe Cecin, Chief Operating Officer, Cambrian Communications. "With OC-3 to OC-192 capacity the ONS 15454 provides scalable bandwidth transport solutions for today's value-added services and its point-and-click provisioning dramatically reduces critical provisioning times for our customers. These capabilities significantly increase Cambrian's ability to compete for and win business."

Cisco further redefines the multiservice capabilities of this industry leading transport platform by introducing high-density OC-12 and line rate Gigabit Ethernet service interface cards. Four ports on each card maximize valuable rack space to deliver unprecedented flexibility for today's fastest growing wavelength and data services. Using the high-density OC-12/STM-4 card with the ONS 15454, service providers gain unparalleled functionality with 16 protected OC-12 ports in one ONS 15454 shelf. Competitive solutions require an entire rack for the same level of OC-12 support.

Additionally, the new quad Gigabit Ethernet card enables service providers to maximize fiber resources by efficiently packing 1000BaseT channels or dedicating full channels based upon customer requirements. With four Gigabit Ethernet ports to a card, the ONS 15454 can carry 64 wavelength service customers on a single metro ring. The four port Gigabit Ethernet card also simplifies and expedites provisioning for rapid data service delivery.

Within an intelligent IP+Optical infrastructure the ONS 15454 delivers the data and wavelength transport required by the evolving metro service market, allowing service providers to deliver more services and reach more customers with smaller, less expensive systems. Today's metro networks have moved from inflexible, bit-rate specific, TDM-based networks that required expensive overlays for data services to supercharged, multiservice interface platforms which enable data transport. Metro networks are now flexible and scalable, evolving quickly to meet growing and diversifying customer bandwidth and service demands. The ONS 15454 delivers the most extensive range of voice, video and data services including DS-1, DS-3, DS-3 Transmux, EC1, OC-N, OC-Nc, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet. This flexibility coupled with support for OADM, DWDM, and wavelength services enables service providers to deliver intelligent services quickly and cost effectively.

The ONS 15454 extends its metro optical transport leadership with OC-3 to OC-192 SONET/SDH scalability and bandwidth management, integrated optical networking, and unprecedented multiservice capabilities on demand, all combining to drive profitability and accelerate service velocity.

Cisco is demonstrating OC-192 with the Cisco ONS 15454 in booth #5916 at SUPERCOMM, June 5-7 in Atlanta. The OC-192 SONET transport card for the ONS 15454 is currently available.

About Cisco IP+Optical Solutions

Cisco is the first company to deliver scalable IP+Optical networking solutions for today's Internet-driven marketplace. Cisco's IP+Optical strategy builds on Cisco's leadership in IP routing, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), optical networking technology and content/services intelligence. Cisco is uniquely positioned to enable service providers to reduce operational costs and increase service velocity, empowering them to deploy a new generation of highly competitive New World services.

Contact Information:
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Jill Martin	Cisco Systems, Inc.	(408) 853-7759	jimartin@cisco.com
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Roberta De Tata	Cisco Systems, Inc.	408 527-6388	rdetata@cisco.com
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Rachael Myles	Cisco Systems, Inc.	408 853-7660	ramyles@cisco.com