Menlo Park, Calif., May 11, 1993 -- Cisco Systems has announced plans to significantly enhance three major routingprotocols--OSPF, IS-IS and IGRP--that run on its family ofinternetworking routers.
The new versions of OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) and IS-IS(Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System), industry-standardrouting protocols that have been supported on Cisco routers sinceearly 1992, will be available in a series of releases beginning inearly 1994.
Enhanced IGRP, based on the Interior Gateway Routing Protocoldeveloped by Cisco in 1987, will be available in mid 1994.Cisco's original IGRP was the first protocol to permit thebuilding of large internets.
Paulina Knibbe, Cisco Product Manager, said, "Theenhancements we are delivering in OSPF and IS-IS will provideCisco customers with the most powerful standards-based routingprotocol support available in the industry. And the plannedimprovements to IGRP will enable customers to build today'sincreasingly complex internets with IGRP's proven, easy-to-usetechnology."
OSPF: More Policy Routing Capabilities
The new releases of OSPF will support additional policyrouting capabilities, enabling Cisco customers to specify routingpreferences when mixing OSPF with other protocols such as RIP,IGRP and Integrated IS-IS.This capability is particularly useful in today's complexmultiprotocol, multivendor environments. Today's networksfrequently have multiple protocols running, and the ability for acustomer to express routing policy in a routing protocol is a keyrequirement. For example, with policy-based routing a networkadministrator could define data paths through complex networks inorder to take advantage of special WAN tariffs or to protectsensitive data from insecure routes.
In addition, Cisco has broadened OSPF's ability to work in awide area networking environment by enhancing the support for OSPFover SMDS.
Integrated IS-IS: Supports OSI, IP and DECnet Phase IV
The enhanced version of IS-IS will add support for routingTCP/IP traffic--acapability known as IntegratedIS-IS. Integrated IS-IS allows network administrators to maximize theireffectiveness by using a single protocol to simultaneously handlethe routing for OSI CLNP, TCP/IP and DECnet PhaseIV.Cisco first demonstrated Integrated IS-IS at the Interop Fall'92 conference. The company participated in a multivendordemonstration that used Integrated IS-IS to support routing ofOSI, TCP/IP and DECnet Phase IV traffic. Integrated IS-IS willsupport a full range of WAN protocols--X.25, Frame Relay andSMDS--in addition to the LAN and serial point-to-point interfacessupported by IS-IS.
Knibbe said "Integrated IS-IS will let network administratorsmaximize their effectiveness by using a single routing protocol tohandle the routing of both TCP/IP and OSI CLNP. This capabilitylowers the total cost of ownership by reducing complexity ofnetwork operation."
Enhanced IGRP: Advanced Routing Technology with Proven Ease of Use
Enhanced IGRP combines the advantages of "distance-vector"technology (ease of use and scalability) with the benefits of"link state" protocols such as OSPF and Integrated IS-IS (fast convergenceand the flexible addressing enabled by variable-length subnet masks).In addition, Enhanced IGRP introduces the world's first commerciallyavailable implementation of the Distributed Update Algorithm developed byDr. J.J. Garcia-Luna, formerly of SRI. This algorithm allows Enhanced IGRPto route around failures instantly, which increases applicationsavailability for businesses that depend on operational data networks.
Today, IGRP has been used to build all of the world's largestmultiprotocol networks. The largest of these are expected to top1,000 routers each this year. Enhanced IGRP is designed tofacilitate the maximal growth of these largest of networks whilesimultaneously making it easier for customers of all sizes toinstall Cisco router-based networks.
Fully compatible with existing IGRP networks, Enhanced IGRPwill retain the original version's ease of configuration andtrouble-shooting features, as well as its ability to use robust,intuitive routing metrics involving both bandwidth and delay.
Cisco Systems, Inc., is the leading worldwide supplier ofhigh-performance, multimedia and multiprotocol internetworkingproducts, including routers, bridges, communication servers andnetwork management software. Cisco technology is used to buildenterprise-wide networks linking an unlimited number ofgeographically dispersed LANs, WANs, and IBM SNA networks. In theUnited States, Cisco is traded over the counter under the NASDAQsymbol CSCO.
Posted: Jun 7 10:29:20 1993
