SAN JOSE, Calif., July 31, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced Cisco 2650 and Cisco 2651 modular multiservice routers, extending the range of performance options in the widely deployed Cisco 2600 family. These high performance models enable customers to support multiple bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive applications concurrently, such as new web applications, broadband WAN services, and converged voice and data infrastructures.
Also announced were two new broadband network interfaces: DS3/E3 ATM for both the Cisco 2600 and Cisco 3600 and OC-3/STM-1 ATM with adaptation layer 1 (AAL-1) circuit emulation services for Cisco 3600 series routers. These new network modules help customers leverage high speed WAN services to their branch infrastructures and enable smooth migration to packet voice solutions.
Branch Office Evolution Continues
Branch office networking requirements are dramatically evolving, driven by the need to deploy web applications to enhance competitiveness, the emergence of new WAN access transport services, and the convergence of voice and data infrastructures. For customers requiring concurrent support for VPN services, broadband connectivity options, packet voice services, and new web applications, the Cisco 2650 provides a high performance solution that leverages the complete suite of over 50 modular interfaces for the Cisco 2600 series. These new models complement the existing Cisco 2600 series, providing customers a family of solutions with unparalleled investment protection, power, and flexibility.
"The Cisco 2600 series is Cisco's flagship multiservice platform for small to medium branch offices, and with more than 500,000 units shipped, is one of the fastest growing products in Cisco's end-to-end portfolio," said Sylvia Summers-Dubrevil, group vice president of Cisco's Public Access Managed Network Services Group. "These new high performance models make the Cisco 2600 family an ideal integrated services solution with the flexibility and scalability for the entire range of customer environments."
Equant has selected the Cisco 2600 series as one of its preferred customer premise equipment (CPE) offerings to support integrated voice and data over IP services. "Equant's collaboration with Cisco has enabled us to develop and launch innovative, first-to-market integrated voice and data services over frame relay and IP on a truly global scale," said Laurence Huntley, executive vice president of Equant's Network Services Division. "Using Cisco's 2600 series routers, we can meet customers' requirements for high-quality, integrated solutions in 54 countries worldwide."
High-Performance Cisco 2650 and Cisco 2651
The Cisco 2650 provides a single auto-sensing 10/100Mbps Ethernet port. The Cisco 2651 features dual 10/100 Mbps ports to support applications such as firewall and intrusion detection with performance that is critical for web-enabled business applications. Both platforms offer increased Flash and DRAM memory support for extensive access control lists, routing tables and the flexibility of dual software-image back-up support for even the most feature-rich versions of Cisco IOS..
New ATM Modules Extend Bandwidth and QoS Capabilities to Branch and Regional Offices
The increasing demand for higher bandwidth requirements for multiservice applications, combined with the inherent QoS provided with ATM, make the DS3/E3 ATM network an ideal choice for customers that need to deploy multiservice solutions. Fractional DS3/E3 access services up to 45Mbps/34Mbps enable Service Providers to offer Service Level Agreements (SLA's) that allow customers to increase their bandwidth as needed without swapping out CPE hardware or physical connections.
The new ATM DS3/E3 modules are supported by both the Cisco 2600 and Cisco3600 series. Both the DS3 and E3 ATM network modules support the ATM Forum compliant framing standard AAL5. ATM Traffic Management classes supported include UBR, UBR+, VBR-rt, VBR-nrt, ABR and CBR.
With the new OC-3/STM-1 Circuit Emulation Services (CES) modules for the Cisco 3600 Series routers, Service Providers can combine services, share bandwidth, and reduce costs. The new module enables both Enterprise customers and Service Providers to gain access to layer 3 services without being required to connect a separate router to their ATM access multiplexer.
Pricing and Availability
The Cisco 2650, 2651 and the ATM OC-3/STM-1, DS3/E3 network modules areimmediately available. Pricing for the new Cisco 2600 models start at $3295. The ATM OC-3/STM-1 modules start at $7,500 while the DS3/E3 start at $6,000. The Cisco IOS software Firewall feature sets are available immediately, andstart at $1,200.
