SAN JOSE, Calif., December 4, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today introduced a new member of its Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) portfolio - the ONS 15808 Long-Haul/Extended Long-Haul DWDM System, enabling service providers to meet Internet demand for high capacity circuits while reducing transport cost per bit. With advanced technology enhancements allowing for tighter channel spacing, increased channel capacity, higher bit rate, and greatly extended transmission distances, the ONS 15808 is designed to deliver service providers' key requirements for cost-effective long-haul transport.
Cisco also announced today that the Cisco ONS 15808 has been selected by Velocita Corp., a nationwide broadband networks provider, for core transport over multiple routes throughout the country. Maximizing speed, capacity, and distance along with superior service management and band management the ONS 15808 enables Velocita to expand the capabilities of its IP+Optical infrastructure and keep pace with customer requirements.
"Adding the ONS 15808 to our nationwide network, we increase capacity, speed and span distance while reducing operations costs by maximizing the efficiency of long-haul transport. The Raman-based ONS 15808 also provides the scalability that will allow us to cost-effectively grow our networks along with customer demand," said Bob Collet, chief technology officer, Velocita Corp. "This level of efficiency and flexibility is critical for Velocita as we continue to roll out high bandwidth-based services such as those in our IP services suite."
Speed, capacity, and distance are key requirements for long-haul transport. The influence of increasing data traffic volume on traditional voice networks has lengthened spans for long-haul transport because data generally travels farther. In fact, the majority of traffic traversing today's core fiber optic networks converges around two segments, traditional Long-Haul (0-600 km) and Extended Long-Haul (600-2,000 km). The ONS 15808 utilizes highly-efficient dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology to deliver low cost transport optimized for these two segments.
"Lowering cost is the number one objective for long-haul transport," said Geraint Anderson, vice president and general manager at Cisco Systems. "Customers like Velocita that deploy solutions optimized for their Long-Haul or Extended Long-Haul applications address market needs with enhanced performance and capacity while maximizing budgets and resources with scalable and flexible solutions that meet their customers' requirements."
Cost-effective service and application management can be achieved by deploying the ONS 15808 to carry Long-Haul (LH) optimized traffic, Extended Long-Haul (ELH) optimized traffic, or both. The LH configuration is utilized for traditional long-haul and regional applications such as connectivity between carrier points of presence (PoPs) within and between major cities. The ELH configuration addresses applications such as interconnectivity of major data centers and PoPs in carrier networks between major metro areas.
By utilizing solutions optimized to address the longer ELH spans created by increasing data volumes, service providers minimize cost in several ways. First, they reduce the number of devices deployed over their core optical networks. Second, with fewer network elements, operations and management become less complex and more automated, saving significantly in critical OAM&P (operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning) costs. Additionally, the replacement of O/E/O (optical/electrical/optical) regeneration sites with optical line amplification (OLA) sites reduces both the floor occupancy and the power consumption required to operate the system. Finally, the elimination of regeneration sites means fewer electronic conversions and fewer points of failure, increasing reliability, availability, and serviceability.
A cost-effective solution for LH and ELH, the ONS 15808 also provides the scalability and flexibility service providers need to build for future growth. The ONS 15808 is a 2.5 and 10 Gbps DWDM transmission platform with planned support for 40 Gbps for future growth. In its initial release the ONS 15808 offers 80 channels with 50 GHz spacing. Future releases are planned to support 160 10 Gbps channels for various applications with scalability to support more than 300 10 Gbps channels. Complete band independence allows service providers to maximize capacity by fiber type and application. Additionally, high platform modularity is designed to allow service providers to grow the system in a non-service affecting manner.
Other key features include Out-of-Band Forward Error Correction (FEC) for enhanced signal performance, optical channel protection, and automated optical power provisioning. For efficient management and operations, Cisco Transport Manager (CTM) provides single domain management for all optical transport technologies across Cisco's ONS portfolio. To meet service providers' needs worldwide, the ONS 15808 supports ANSI and ETSI standards in a single platform.
About Cisco's Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport Portfolio
The Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety, and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP+Optical networking. Supporting TDM, Ethernet, IP, Storage, and Wavelength services over SONET and DWDM with integrated bandwidth management and end-to-end provisioning, the Cisco COMET portfolio offers efficient, unprecedented flexibility and capacity. With the Cisco COMET portfolio, enterprises and service providers drive profitability and accelerate IP+Optical networking.
