SAN JOSE, Calif., - April 7, 1997 - Cisco Systems today announced a suite ofsoftware capabilities for its expanded series of Catalyst(TM) 5000 switches.These new software features are part of the Cisco IOS(TM) platform and are beingused to deliver network services and enable network applications for buildingscalable corporate intranets. Cisco IOS network services for the Catalyst 5000series of switches includes reliability, multimedia, security and provisions formobility, quality of service and policy-based management features.
"The industry is moving toward a model of services-based, 'intelligent'networks," said Mary Petrosky, Senior Analyst, The Burton Group. "Cisco is wellpositioned to take a leadership role in this arena."
"We are very excited about the new additions to the Cisco Catalyst 5000 series,"said Mike Nash, Director of Windows NT Server Marketing, Microsoft Corporation. "In situations that require a high level of scalability, the Catalyst 5000 seriesof switches and new network services provide a great solution."
Device, Link and Network Reliability
The Catalyst 5xxx 2.2 software now supports multiple levels of networkreliability for growing mission-critical environments. This support includesredundant Supervisor Engine options for device-level fault tolerance. Forlink/path-level redundancy, the Catalyst 5000 series not only supports automaticrecovery from failure using Spanning Tree per VLAN, but now offers load-sharingfor faster link convergence using Cisco's recently announced FastEtherChannel(TM) technology.
For increased protocol reliability, the Catalyst 5000 switches now deliver SimpleServer Redundancy Protocol (SSRP) and Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP), whichaddress router redundancy.
Multimedia/Multicast Services
The increased use of multicast traffic due to intranet applications make itnecessary to handle traffic loads efficiently throughout switches and routers.The Catalyst 5xxx 2.2 software now delivers end-to-end multicast support acrossall routers and switches on the campus intranet through support of Internet GroupMulticast Protocol (IGMP) and Cisco Group Multicast Protocol (CGMP). Theseservices forward traffic only to switch users who subscribe to individualmulticast groups without impacting other users. This feature offersunprecedented levels of performance of millions of packets per second.
Campus-Wide Security
Consistent with Cisco's recently announced security initiative, the Catalyst 5000switches now ensure uniform security access via Terminal Access Controller AccessControl System (TACACS) authentication services and Syslog audit trails. Appropriate firewall services are also available via access filters that can beestablished at Layer 2 MAC addresses and/or Layer 3 network addresses.
Policy Management
To ensure consistent operation of new campus intranet services, new policymanagement features will be incorporated into CiscoWorks( for SwitchedInternetworks (CWSI). These management features will allow proactiveconfiguration of bandwidth, topology, addressing, security and quality-of-serviceaspects of campus networks.
New features in CWSI Release 1.3 include support for new operating systems andmanagement platforms, enhanced device management capabilities, "switch-aware"traffic reporting and extended virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration functions.
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