Cisco 7000 Runs Four Times Faster Than Competitors in Bradner Benchmark
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, May 5, 1994 -- A Cisco 7000 multiprotocol routerrunning DECnet V/OSI turned in aggregate routing throughput performance of177,000 packets per second (pps) -- over four times the performance of itsnearest competitor -- in benchmark tests published today by Scott Bradnerof the Network Device Testing Laboratory at Harvard University.
Routers from Digital Equipment and 3Com ranked next in performance with41,112 pps and 26,099 pps, respectively.
"Like all Cisco routers, the Cisco 7000 has long been praised for anexceptional set of features that helps network managers control and managethe development of their standards-based internetworks," said Tony Moraros,Cisco's product marketing manager. "Now that many of these internetworksare in place and traffic loads are growing, total network throughput hasgrown in importance. The one-two punch of Cisco's new IOS (InternetworkOperating System) software and the SSP (silicon switchprocessor)ASICS-based switching engine have now established the Cisco 7000 as theoverwhelming performance champion for DECnet/OSI networks, according to theBradner benchmark results.
The latest release of Cisco's Internetwork Operating System software,along with the recently announced Cisco SSP, have increased the routingspeed of the Cisco 7000 on DECnet Phase V/OSI networks as much as ten-foldover earlier versions. Existing Cisco 7000 installations are currentlybeing upgraded with the new software under standard service agreements.Customers who require the additional performance of the SSP can upgradetheir Cisco 7000s with a simple field upgrade board swap.
"It is a tribute to Cisco's loosely coupled multiprocessing hardwarearchitecture that a dramatic increase in performance can be achieved bysimply optimizing the operating system software alone," Moraros said. "Theperformance increase of the new software and hardware combination isespecially good news for managers of DECnet Phase IV networks because theCisco 7000 provides the most flexible and least costly migration path toPhase V.
"Whereas Digital has announced plans to end support for DECnet PhaseIV, the Cisco architecture lets managers convert or expand to Phase V undertheir control on a node-by-node basis. They can retain the native DECnetPhase IV topology to preserve their initial investment in host processors,routers and applications wherever it makes sense."
DECnet Phase V implements the OSI reference model, which is mandatoryfor government users in the U.S. and widely used throughout Europe. DECnetV/OSI applications are also widespread among internetwork serviceproviders, and in the airline and electric power industries.
The Cisco 7000 is the only router that provides DECnet/OSI access listsfor the security and administrative control of traffic flow.Point-to-point PPP (RFC 1376 and 1377) encapsulation for DECnet IV/V/OSIenables vendor interoperability across serial links. Additionally, theavailability of the Integrated Intermediate system-to-intermediate system(Integrated IS-IS) routing protocol allows a single routing protocol to runboth IP and DECnet V/OSI, reducing network management complexity.
Cisco Systems, Inc., is the leading worldwide supplier ofhigh-performance, multimedia and multiprotocol internetworking products,including routers, bridges, workgroup systems for 10-Mbps/100-Mbps datatransmission, ATM switches, communication servers, and router managementsoftware. Cisco technology is used to build enterprise-wide networkslinking an unlimited number of geographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBMSNA networks. In the United States, Cisco is traded over the counter underthe NASDAQ symbol CSCO.
