SAN JOSE, Calif. -- February 23, 1998 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the Cisco AS5800 carrier-class universal access server, a highly available solution for large dial points of presence (POPs) in a single, integrated product. Delivering on the vision of telephony-scale data networks, the Cisco AS5800 is specifically designed to meet the demands of large-scale service providers such as PTTs, RBOCs, CLECs, IXCs and large ISPs.
DASA Architecture for Resilience, Flexibility and High Performance
The Cisco AS5800 is the newest component of the Dial Access Stacking Architecture (DASA), thereby enabling it to be stacked with other Cisco AS5800s, AS5300s to create resilient, flexible, high-performance, manageable and cost-optimized solutions for any size dial pool. By using DASA, the Cisco AS5200, AS5300 and the new AS5800 access servers are all available as part of the AccessPath integrated access system. Network architects can now deploy port densities of more than 10,000 simultaneous connections in a single telco hunt group.
The Cisco AS5X00 and AccessPath families provide the largest range of dial solutions available today, from 2 to 500 Primary Rate Interfaces (PRIs). All support Cisco IOS® software and offer common user interfaces, management tools and network services, enabling customers to choose the correct product for different parts of their networks without sacrificing the benefit of consistent operations and services. By providing the industry's broadest family of compatible products, Cisco enables customers to pick the right starting point for a "pay-as-you-grow" rollout without compromising future capabilities.
"5nines: 5minutes" Availability Meets Service Provider Requirements
Service providers require high availability and carrier-class management for their complex dial POPs. The NEBS level 3- and European ETSI-compliant Cisco AS5800 has a Bellcore-recognized mean time between failure (MTBF) of greater than 500,000 hours. Equipped with hot-swappable cards, power and blower assemblies, redundant and load-sharing power supplies, fans and modems, the Cisco AS5800 provides availability at 99.999 percent 3/4 a figure which equates to less than five minutes of downtime per year. For even higher availability, the Cisco AS5200, AS5300 and the new AS5800 are all available as part of AccessPath integrated solutions that deliver 6nines or 99.99998 percent availability.
"Carriers are notoriously demanding in their requirements and specifications for central-office equipment -- and these demands now extend to remote access," said Brad Baldwin, Director of Remote Access at IDC. "Cisco's AS5800 easily meets IDC's list of carrier-class requirements believed fundamental in delivering true carrier-class remote access servers to these highly-available, scalable, mission-critical environments."
Carrier-Class System Management
Delivered as an option with the Cisco AS5800, major enhancements to the Cisco System Controller include the Expression MIB, Health Monitor and Bulk Transfer MIB. These Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) extensions allow the network operator to monitor an entire POP of dial ports with a minimum of polling and network traffic. Detailed polling data can be stored locally for later retrieval if necessary. For easy troubleshooting, Cisco has added a conditional debug facility, allowing a debug command to be triggered by a specific event, such as a user ID or phone number, and turning on debug for the affected port only, enabling rapid identification and resolution of problems.
Enables Service Providers to Offer New and Differentiated Services
Cisco IOS software provides unequaled support and enhancements for networking protocols. The mature and robust support provided by scalable Cisco IOS technologies enables service providers to offer new, competitive services beyond Internet dial, including virtual private networks (VPNs), multiple service levels, detailed billing and network gaming. Cisco IOS support on the Cisco AS5800 provides increased scalability to address thousands of interfaces and contains specific features to improve the management and deployment of wholesale dial services by service providers. Continuing the momentum that Cisco has established in data/voice/video integration, the Cisco AS5800 will be voice-over-IP- and fax-over-IP-enabled.
Scalable Performance; Wealth of Proven Interfaces
Multiple proven high-speed processors enable the Cisco AS5800 to easily sustain 720 concurrent sessions at or near line speed. The Cisco AS5800 can be configured with up to 24 T1/E1 PRI interfaces, each with integrated Channel Service Units (CSUs), and has been designed to grow to twice that capacity within 1998.
Using the same Versatile Interface Processor (VIP) port adapters as the Cisco 7000, 7200 and 7500 series products, the Cisco AS5800 ships with the widest range of network interfaces in the market. These include Fast Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), High-Speed Serial Interface (HSSI), DS3, E3 and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) OC-3 among others.
SS7 Makes Cisco Part of the Public Switched Network with Cost Savings
Carriers worldwide need Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) to integrate dial access into their network infrastructures - to reduce costs, offload voice switches, realize new revenue opportunities and scale their networks cost-effectively. Cisco's recent acquisition of LightSpeed International brings the core technology to provide SS7 signaling protocols and interfaces to Cisco's carrier-class dial platforms, including the AS5800. With SS7, carriers can offer dial outsourcing services with, in many cases, 50 percent lower capital costs compared with PRI solutions, while scaling to central-office sized POPs of well over 10,000 ports.
MICA Modems for Cisco AS5800; Support for V.90
The Cisco AS5800 universal access server benefits from advanced Modem ISDN Channel Aggregation (MICA) technologies. Digital modem technology offers "any-to-any" multisession functionality for current analog modem standards, including K56Flex, supplying value-added functions for ISDN channels and Channelized E1/T1. These modems have a free software upgrade to the recently introduced ITU V.90 draft specification, which is designed to upgrade current K56flex and x2 modems to a new interoperable standard for 56-kbps connectivity.
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