Zoomtown, Tidepoint Choose Cisco for Flexible and Scalable Access and Content Services
SAN JOSE, Calif., - October 9, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced it has increased the scalability of its market leading carrier-class broadband aggregation solutions. With the new NRP2 processor blade for the Cisco 6400 Carrier-Class Broadband Aggregator, service providers can leverage their existing network investment, while significantly increasing overall performance and scalability of their DSL aggregation solution. In addition, the new Cisco 7200 Broadband-subscriber User Services (BUS) License delivers scaled PPP, RBE, and L2TP sessions and tunnels as well as other IP services that allow service providers to provision broadband Internet access. Together, the Cisco 6400 aggregator and Cisco 7200 router comprise the worldwide market-leading broadband aggregation platform for service providers.
"With Cisco's broadband aggregation platforms service providers do not need to replace their existing equipment to add scalability," said John Goodhue, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Aggregation Business Unit. "This strategy is more cost effective for service providers frustrated with the costs associated with 'fork lift' upgrades."
Service Providers Gain Options for Broadband Aggregation
"Cisco's strategy of providing subscriber management services on a range of platforms means that service providers can select the right price/performance model for their needs," said Deb Mielke, principal of Treillage Network Strategies. "With this approach, service providers do not over pay for small POP requirements or compromise scalability at large POPs."
With more than 29,000 subscribers in Greater Cincinnati and speeds of 768K and 1.5M, ZoomTown.com is a national leader in broadband. ZoomTown.com uses the Cisco 6400 aggregator to deliver movies on demand, games on demand, and e-Commerce solutions. "By enhancing the Cisco 6400 aggregator with additional performance and scalability, we are getting the most out of our initial investment," said Jeff Carr, chief information officer at ZoomTown.com, the broadband subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. "The new NRP2 card for the Cisco 6400 aggregator will allow us to more easily add new customers and services without sacrificing speed and scalability. In addition, our customers will benefit from richer, more powerful service offerings that are deployed on the Cisco 6400 aggregator using the Service Selection Gateway."
"As a provider of next-generation Business Partner Infrastructure Services, we needed a solution that could provide a flexible termination point for a large number of DSL sessions originating with a number of third-party last-mile carriers, while also providing complex connectivity solutions for our direct-connected ATM, Internet VPN and dial customers," said Charles Lewis, CTO of Tidepoint, a service provider in Baltimore, MD. "After evaluating the solutions of several other vendors, we quickly realized that no other solution matched the Cisco 7200's combination of high performance and best-of-breed intelligent policy-based network services. Unlike other products that seem to be singly focused on pure throughput, the Cisco 7200 also provides the scalability, flexibility, reliability and manageability that we need to provide our fully integrated network services and infrastructure applications."
Availability
The Cisco 6400 NRP2 processor blade is capable of supporting up to 16,000 subscribers and will be available in November. The Cisco 6400 chassis can host up to eight blades. The new NRP2 processor blade can coexist with existing NRP1 blades in all Cisco 6400 chassis. In November, the NRP2 blades will become standard equipment on all Cisco 6400s shipped.
The new Cisco 7200 Broadband Subscriber User Services (BUS) License will be available with the release of Cisco IOS 12.1 (5) T and will provide enhanced group management and scaling services up to 4,000 subscriber session. Cisco IOS 12.1 (5) T is expected to be available in late November.
