PARIS, France -- February 22, 1999 -- France Telecom, France's leading provider of Internet access and value-added services for business, is turbo-charging its national IP network, RAIN, with the installation of Cisco 12000 series Gigabit Switch Routers (GSR). Following massive growth in its Internet traffic, which increased by 330 percent in 1998, France Telecom is building a robust, high-speed network for the 21st century. The Cisco 12000 GSR solution will enable the company to provide sufficient bandwidth and high performance to meet the expected growth in demand for IP-based applications.
Currently, the RAIN IP network transports more than 40 Terabytes of Internet traffic each month. To meet this demand, the Cisco 12000 GSR series routers will run with Packet Over SONET STM-1 (155 Mbps) now and STM-4 (622 Mbps) links in the near future. To ensure that the network will continue to develop ahead of customer demand, it has in-built capability to upgrade to STM-16 (2,4 Gbps) with D-WDM technology. France Telecom's evaluation of GRP redundancy showed the Cisco 12000 GSR to be a true carrier class switch router with full redundancy (processing, switch matrix, power supply, fan) currently available, offering OC-48 with evolution capability to OC-192.
The Cisco 12000 series complements the many Cisco 7500 series routers already in use within the RAIN IP network, enhancing France Telecom's long-term investment in Cisco technology. Both Cisco models deployed run the scaleable and service-rich Cisco IOS. software, which provides high-performance queuing and traffic engineering services that support France Telecom's IP class of service (COS) with advanced BGP signalling (BGP is the Internet Services Interconnexion protocol).
"The Cisco12000 GSR meets the exponential growth in demand for quality of service and bandwidth that we experience on a daily basis" said Patrick Puges, vice president, technical design and engineering, business solutions and data networks division. "By deploying Cisco 12000 GSR throughout our core backbone, we are anticipating the development of New World high-end services, and give our customers the opportunity to experience the benefits of them now. France Telecom and Cisco are proud to develop their partnership, bringing exclusive networking services to market quicker than competition."
Comments Cisco's Peter Lomas, vice president, Service Provider Operations, EMEA, "Preparation for the future direction of high performance networking is the key to success for Internet Service Providers right now. France Telecom's decision to embrace the New World vision of IP based networks means they can keep up with today's fast increasing demand for IP based applications, as well as building in the capability to deliver advanced, differentiated services in the future."
About the Cisco 12000 Gigabit Switch Router
Cisco's 12000 gigabit switch router delivers Internet routing and switching at gigabit speeds. Cisco 12000 GSR provides scaleable IP forwarding and services performance in a carrier-class platform, enabling high-speed IP backbones to scale to OC-12 (622 Mbps) and OC-48 (2.4 Gbps). Future GSR technology will support OC-192 (9.6 Gbps). With extensive redundancy and carrier-compliant equipment standards, the Cisco 12000 series is specifically designed to provide the high availability required by high-speed service provider backbones.About France Telecom Business Solutions and Data Networks Division
France Telecom is a world leader in the fields of data transmission and value added services. France Telecom owes this position to its market understanding and to the quality of technical and sales teams who have been satisfying global business needs for 20 years. France Telecom's international development capabilities were further strengthened in January 1996 with the launch of the worldwide GlobalOne joint venture in partnership with Deutsche Telekom and Sprint.France Telecom Business Solutions and Data Networks Division provides services and data networks as part of France Telecom's Corporate Branch : data networks, Intranets, Internet, Extranet, LAN to LAN, Voice/Data network Services. It has some 13,000 corporate customers, and its networks are used by over 11 million people daily, carrying a monthly volume of 80,000 gigabytes of data.
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S., Canada and other countries. All other brand names and trademarks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.
