CeBIT, HANNOVER, Germany, March 12, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), today announced several new enhancements to the Cisco ONS 15530 Multiservice Aggregation Platform. New features deliver high-density service aggregation, optical interface flexibility and high availability, enabling enterprises to better scale network capacity and support network consolidation of rapidly increasing storage and Ethernet application traffic.
"Enterprise customers are looking for ways to consolidate their networks by extending DWDM beyond the SAN to incorporate all mission-critical applications and services on one infrastructure," said Carl Engineer, senior director of marketing, Optical Networking Group, Cisco Systems®. "With these new features the Cisco ONS 15530 platform delivers scalability to meet increasing capacity requirements and flexibility to address traffic diversity while supporting the level of productivity our customers demand."
Enhancements announced today include the Cisco® ONS 15530 8-Port Fibre Channel/Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation Card, Cisco ONS 15530 2.5-Gbps ITU Trunk Card and new protection switch modules for the Cisco ONS 15500 Series.
Dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology offers several primary benefits for evolving storage-area networking (SAN) environments. Providing dramatic increases in capacity and throughput as well as bit-rate and protocol transparency, DWDM supports the high-bandwidth, low-latency requirements for business-continuance applications and the high service density needed for storage, data and legacy traffic.
High-Density Service Aggregation Efficiently Uses Wavelengths
Cisco enhances the high-density service-aggregation capabilities of the Cisco ONS 15530 with the new 8-Port Fibre Channel/Gigabit Ethernet aggregation card and 2.5-Gbps ITU trunk card. The aggregation card efficiently uses wavelengths by aggregating up to eight Fibre Channel, fiber connectivity (FICON), or Gigabit Ethernet signals on a single 10-Gbps wavelength. The 2.5-Gbps ITU trunk card increases fiber carrying capacity for storage and data applications by aggregating multiple enterprise system connection (ESCON), Fibre Channel, FICON, and Gigabit Ethernet services over a single International Telecommunication Union (ITU) wavelength. Both features support the ability to scale the network without interruption as new services are added.
Optical Interface Flexibility Supports Scalability
With 2.5- and 10-Gbps ITU trunk-card options, the Cisco ONS 15530 platform delivers optical interface flexibility, providing greater scalability from low-density to high-density deployments. The ONS 15530 2.5-Gbps ITU Trunk Card also allows flexible network designs that require the ability to add or drop a few services per site around a metropolitan-area network (MAN or metro) ring. These features combined with high-density service aggregation protect customer investments as they evolve or expand their networks.
High Network Availability Increases Reliability
Multiple optical-protection schemes are another benefit DWDM brings to storage-area networks. New protection switch modules for the Cisco ONS 15500 Series add to the product family's extensive array of protection mechanisms and provide cost-effective fiber trunk protection for greater reliability for disaster-recovery and business-continuance solutions.
In a related announcement, Cisco stated today that Mainova, a German utility provider, is extending its data-recovery and business-continuance strategy using Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet over a DWDM network based on the Cisco ONS 15540 Extended Services Platform. For more information, read "Mainova Implements Business-Continuance Strategy Based on Cisco ONS 15540 Technology" at http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_031203d.html.
About Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) Portfolio
The Cisco COMET product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP and optical networking. Cisco COMET news and information can be found at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/servpro/solutions/optical/.
Cisco COMET optical solutions can be seen at the CeBIT conference in Hannover, Germany, March 12-19, 2003 at Hall 13 Stand Number C58.
