- News Releases: Beijing Telecommunications AdministrationSelects Cisco
- More Information on Cisco Service Provider Solutions
- More Information on Cisco StrataCom IGX Switches
SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 20, 1997 - Cisco Systems, Inc. has been selected to supply andinstall switches for the China National Financial Data Communications Backbone Network, a newdata network linking the country's major banks and financial institutions. When complete, thenetwork will span nearly 200 cities across the country, forming China's largest Frame Relaynetwork.
Under a multi-million-dollar contract, Cisco will supply 200 Cisco StrataCom(R) IGXmultiservice switches, providing a national data backbone capable of handling both Frame Relayand Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) traffic. Cisco will work with local partners on thedesign, installation and testing of the network.
The new network will provide the backbone information infrastructure for the People's Bank ofChina, the nation's central bank. It also will be used by all of the country's commercial banksand by other financial intermediaries, and for interbank communications and informationprocessing.
The network, jointly funded by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and the People'sBank of China, will be operated by Zhong Yuan Financial Data Network Co., Ltd. The new networkwill be used to consolidate existing X.25 and LAN traffic and follows an earlier trial phaseinvolving 35 cities begun in September 1996.
"This is the largest project that Cisco has won to date in China, and represents a majormilestone for a company which established a direct presence less than three years ago," saidTak Matsumoto, Cisco's Vice President of Asia Operations.
The new network will be capable of handling all forms of traffic, including voice, data,video, multimedia and Internet communications.
Cisco currently supplies the majority of equipment for China's largest computer networks,including ChinaNet, a government-sponsored initiative to link the country to the worldwideInternet. Other major Cisco customers in the People's Republic of China include China'sEducation Research Network, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, State Administrationfor Exchange Control, Shanghai's Stock Exchange and Xinhua News Agency.
An important consideration in the selection of the StrataCom IGX product for the new financialnetwork was its ability to support both Frame Relay and ATM, a cell-based switching technologycapable of moving data at speeds of up to 622 million bits per second.
"In adopting Cisco's switches, Zhong Yuan wishes to provide reliable, quality and high-speeddata transmission for financial users," said Li Ye, chairman of Zhong Yuan Financial DataNetwork Co., Ltd.. "The project is also a foundation for the company to provide value-addedservices for financial users."
The StrataCom IGX is a versatile, standards-based ATM switch capable of supporting a widevariety of narrowband and broadband applications for enterprise networks and service providers.Cisco IOS(TM) software running on the switch provides a number of value-added network services,including quality of service and multimedia.
"The IGX is ideally suited to multiservice environments such as that of the Chinese nationalfinancial network," Matsumoto said. "As network demand increases, new services can beimplemented in a cost-effective way and system capacity expanded to migrate from Frame Relayspeeds to broadband ATM on the same platform."
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