SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 13, 1999 - Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced the 12000 Terabit System, a landmark architecture for scaling service provider IP infrastructures. The innovative 12000 Terabit System scales to 5 Terabits (Tbps) per second using industry-proven Cisco technology to provide customers the ability to outpace ever-increasing traffic demands by scaling their IP backbones. The Cisco 12016 GSR, which is available now, is the fundamental component of the 12000 Terabit System. This system provides unprecedented scalability with the first OC192c/STM64 (10 Gigabits (Gbps)) interface, and is in early customer deployments today. "Service providers need to reduce operational costs in backbone networks by ensuring long term continuity in network architecture," says Joe Skorupa, vice president of Switching & Routing at RHK. "Highly scalable systems that offer in-place expansion and investment protection will be particularly attractive as service providers build out their next generation backbones."
The 12000 Terabit System offers modular, non-disruptive system scalability to 5 Tbps using an advanced crossbar switch fabric architecture. Because the system is managed as a single routing node, it simplifies POP (point-of-presence) architecture and reduces cost of operations. The software foundation for the Terabit System is Cisco's Internet-proven IOS(, which is optimized and streamlined for service providers for a greater degree of scale and stability. By leveraging Cisco IOS, a service provider can offer an unprecedented array of New World services, such as virtual private networks and unicast and multicast based services. These services will be supported through all current and future interface cards for the 12000 product. This enables providers to maintain capital and operational investments.
Qwest Communications has already delivered the industry's first coast-to-coast OC-192c link using the 12016 GSR, running production traffic between its New York and Sunnyvale, Calif. broadband Internet network locations. "Cisco has been very aggressive in working with Qwest to deliver the next generation gigabit switch router," said Vab Goel, Qwest's vice president of emerging technologies. "Deploying the 12016 GSR enabled us to turn up the first OC-192c circuit in our leading-edge nationwide Internet backbone and will allow us to seamlessly increase the total capacity and performance of our network and data centers for customers."
"The 12000 Terabit System is unique among high end routing platforms in offering service providers scalability to a Terabit-speed platform and is based on a widely deployed and proven architecture," said industry analyst Dave Passmore, president of NetReference. "Driven by insatiable customer bandwidth demands, service providers today are constantly scaling backbone capacities. This platform directly addresses this need, while providing significant investment protection."
The Cisco 12016 GSR is a carrier class router, supporting redundancy for all critical system components. To help carriers contend with traffic that doubles every six to nine months, the 12016 can accommodate up to 15 OC-192c/STM64 (10Gbps) interfaces and a switching capacity that scales to 320 Gbps. In addition, it supports the entire range of 12000 series interface cards with speeds ranging from DS3 to OC192c/STM64c, including channelized OC-12, to provide unparalleled flexibility in configuration. This full suite of interfaces, including Packet-over-SONET (PoS), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Gigabit Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Dynamic Packet Transport, provides a host of connectivity options. With a system latency as low as 13 microseconds combined with Class of Service capabilities, this platform is ideal for supporting real-time traffic such as interactive data, on-line transactions, voice and video. "AOL continues to focus on providing its members with the best possible Internet online experience, and as we continue building our state-of-the art network we have selected Cisco's top-of-the-line router as a component of that network," said Joe Barrett, AOL vice president of Internet Operations. "This will help enable us to scale the service to support AOL's global growth and next-generation broadband technologies."
"This announcement clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to lead the industry in core routing and significantly enhances our service provider product portfolio. The 12000 GSR product family is the platform of choice for building IP infrastructures today and the 12000 Terabit System will undoubtedly continue this momentum. We are committed to assisting service providers which deploy cost effective and robust infrastructures that can address their capacity needs, while simplifying operations to simplify and expand their operations and maintaining a close focus on delivering revenue-generating New World services," says Kevin J. Kennedy, senior vice president for Cisco's Service Provider Line of Business. "Cisco will scale its solutions to fulfill the needs of service providers as their infrastructures evolve to meet the challenges of the burgeoning competitive Internet economy."
Price and Availability
The Cisco 12016 GSR will ship this month, starting at $65,000.
Editor's Note
Cisco will hold a conference call today at 8:00 a.m. PST. The domestic call-in number is (800) 633-8620; the international call-in number is (212) 676-5245. The call will be simultaneously broadcast via the web at www.cisco.com, under Investor Information. A replay of the call will be available at 10:00 a.m. PST today through 10:00 a.m. PST on December 15, 1999. The domestic replay number is (800) 633-8284; the international replay number is (858) 812-6440. The reservation number for the replay is 13809670. The replay will also be available on the company's website.
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is theworldwide leader in networking for the Internet.This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Qwest with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including potential fluctuations in quarterly results, dependence on new product development, rapid technological and market change, failure to maintain the rights of way, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks, Qwest's ability to achieve Year 2000 compliance, and adverse changes in the regulatory or legislative environment, and failure to complete the merger and achieve projected synergies and financial results timely or at all. This release may include analysts' estimates and other information prepared by third parties, for which Qwest assumes no responsibility. Qwest undertakes no obligation to review or confirm analysts' expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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