NFOEC Booth Number 615

ORLANDO, Fla. and SAN JOSE, Calif., September 8, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the SL-Series interface for the Cisco® ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) helps to enable the delivery of Fibre Channel-based storage-area-network (SAN)-extension services over Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) networks.

The new SL-Series interface supports four gigabit-interface-converter (GBIC)-based ports, each capable of 1- and 2-Gbps Fibre Channel at line rates, providing the Cisco ONS 15454 with the highest-density of protected Fibre Channel ports, or 40 Fibre Channel interfaces, in the industry.

A Cisco ONS 15454-based service network can use the Cisco ML-Series and SL-Series interfaces to provide SAN-extension services using native Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, or Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol (FCIP) with standards-based generic framing procedure-transparent (GFP-T) and virtual concatenation (VCAT) technology. The SAN-extension services can be created and managed in a unified way using the same management tools used to create time-division multiplexing (TDM) and Ethernet services. The SL-Series interface will support Fibre Channel-transport services at subrates, resulting in cost-effective SAN-extension services delivered to the marketplace by managed service providers. The SL-Series interface is currently being certified across all major SAN original storage manufacturer (OSM) applications.

The Cisco ONS 15454, with SL-Series and ML-Series interfaces, provides SAN-extension services to Cisco MDS 9000-based SANs by transporting technologies such as virtual storage area networks (VSANs) for SAN isolation and PortChannel implementations for link-level redundancy. Cisco's complete SAN-extension portfolio combines native Fibre Channel, FCIP, and Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) technologies on the Cisco MDS Family of storage switches, DWDM-based SAN services over the Cisco ONS 15530 and ONS 15540, FCIP-based interfaces on the Cisco 7200 and 7400 series routers, and multiservice transport over the Cisco ONS 15454. This portfolio allows the creation of SAN-extension services without boundaries using Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, IP and SONET/SDH technologies.

"The SL-series adds flexibility to Cisco's Multiservice over SONET/SDH offering, supporting both the 15454's installed base and new builds," said Dave Dunphy, a Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "Initially adding critical TDM-based Fibre Channel support, the SL-series will complement Cisco's existing DWDM and IP-based SAN extension capabilities to give enterprises and a variety of service providers a wide choice in Cisco-based SAN extension options tailored to their needs."

Availability

The Cisco ONS 15454 ML-Series interface is currently available and the Cisco ONS 15454 SL-Series interface is scheduled to be available by year end 2003.

About Cisco 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 and optical networking. Cisco COMET news and information can be found at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/servpro/solutions/optical/. Cisco will be at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), in Orlando, Florida, September 7-11, 2003, at booth number 615.