SAN JOSE, Calif., December 2, 2002 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), today announced new hardware and software features for the Cisco Catalyst® 8500 Series Multiservice Switch Router. New enhancements enable customers to maximize voice, video, and data network productivity in combined Layer 3 and Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM) environments.
New features include a 16-port, long-reach OC-3 interface card, point-to-multipoint Soft PVC, CPU Port Soft PVC, and Frame Relay enhancements. The 16-port, long-reach OC-3 interface delivers enhanced aggregation of OC-3 ports on the Cisco Catalyst 8540 platform, enabling longer distances between nodes. Long-reach OC-3 capabilities enable enterprises to maintain sites in locations up to 40 km apart for highly reliable distributed data centers and greater business resiliency. Additionally, long-reach capabilities reduce the number of chassis in an area, enhancing aggregation and lowering the cost of network ownership and management.
With point-to-multipoint Soft PVC, customers gain efficient management of broadcast quality video over ATM. Individual nodes can easily be added or deleted with a single command as connections are set up through the network via signaling. CPU Port Soft PVC boosts port density by freeing up a port previously required for management. This new feature also allows access via the existing Ethernet port on the CPU card.
Frame Relay enhancements deliver increased bandwidth usage with configurable frame size and overflow queuing. Configurable frame size enables the use of various frame sizes where appropriate to increase the efficiency of data transfer and optimize server-to-server performance. Overflow queuing maximizes data throughput in the presence of "bursty" traffic patterns.
"These new features demonstrate our commitment to the ATM and the hybrid ATM/Layer 3 environments our customers have implemented to utilize a converged voice, data, and video network to drive their business," said Carl Engineer, director of marketing, Cisco Systems. "By enhancing aggregation, increasing port density and bandwidth usage, and enabling more efficient video management, we continue to maximize the capabilities of our Catalyst 8500 Series to meet our customers' evolving needs."
About the Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series is a Layer 3-enhanced ATM switch that integrates wire-speed Layer 3 switching and ATM switching, eliminating the need to make a technology choice. The Catalyst 8500 Series delivers campus and metropolitan-area network solutions with scalable performance, lower cost of ownership, and intranet-based application features to deliver increased business productivity.
