News Release

Cisco Scales the IP/MPLS Core and Speeds Service Delivery at the Network Edge

New Enhancements to Cisco 12000 Router Double the Capacity of the World's Largest Core Networks; Additions to Cisco 7600 Series Enable New Edge Services for Comcast and More
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Dec 10, 2003

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 10, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced significant enhancements across the company's core and edge routing portfolio. These next-generation developments give service providers a broader range of application options to extend existing system investments and the ability to deploy and scale new services to increase revenue-generation opportunities.

The additions to the Cisco® 12000 Series Router are: the new Cisco 12800 Routers, a 40 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) -per-slot system with complementary higher density OC-192/STM-64 and OC-48/STM-16 line cards that use the greater system capacity, and new Cisco 12010 and 12006 Routers, 2.5-Gbps-per-slot systems offered in 10- and six-slot chassis. The Cisco 7600 Series introduces a new system processor, Supervisor Engine 720-3BXL, support for additional Layer 2 and Layer 3 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) services, greater scalability, and an Enhanced FlexWAN module that doubles the service performance while using existing Cisco 7200 and Cisco 7500 port adapters.

"In order to drive growth and profitability, service providers are simplifying and consolidating their networks," explained Mike Volpi, senior vice president and general manager of the Routing Technology Group at Cisco Systems. "Additionally the drive to implement premium packet services is creating new revenue opportunity and service differentiation for carriers. To meet these demands, Cisco has developed new routing products which enable service providers to achieve greater scale and reliability, reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating deployment of new IP services."

Comcast is one such service provider working closely with Cisco to reduce costs and generate incremental revenue through a converged, packet-based network infrastructure that can support high-speed Internet, video on demand (VoD), and Voice over IP services. "We are constantly evolving our network to deliver a wider range of services to our customer base," explained David Fellows, chief technology officer at Comcast Cable. "For example, we are currently in the process of enhancing our high-speed Internet service by increasing bandwidth per user and improving customer connectivity to the Internet. The latest additions to Cisco's core and edge routing portfolio give us the performance and scalability required to introduce new services while extending our investments in deployed Cisco 7600 and Cisco 12000 routing platforms."

Cisco 12000 Series: Maximizing ROI by Scaling the Service Provider Core and Edge Network

Building upon the flexibility of the Cisco 12000 Series distributed architecture, the new additions increase network scalability, enhance service delivery and improve cost-efficiencies throughout the network. Providing 40-Gbps-per-slot capacity in existing 10- and 16-slot Cisco 12000 Series chassis, the Cisco 12800 Router supports all available Cisco 12000 Series line cards. The Cisco 12800 Router offers the capabilities and performance service providers require to cost-effectively double the scale of their IP/MPLS networks and reduce operational expenses by using existing investments in the Cisco 12000 Series. The breadth of Cisco 12000 Series interfaces help deliver core and edge applications such as high-speed peering, IP VPN, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay services in a single Cisco 12800 Series chassis.

The new Cisco 12010 and 12006 chassis are 2.5-Gbps systems ideally suited to deliver cost effective high-performance edge services when coupled with the Cisco IP Services Engine (ISE) line card. The Cisco ISE cards supports critical IPv4 and IPv6 features such as quality of service (QoS) and multicast for delivering premium data and real-time voice and video services. The new chassis support all existing 2.5-Gbps line cards and can easily be upgraded to a 10 Gbps systems through a software key.

To complement these core and edge Cisco 12000 Series systems-level enhancements, the new Cisco 12000 Series Performance Route Processor-2 (PRP-2) improves route scalability by doubling CPU performance, and increasing memory for large route tables to support up to 4 million routes.

Rounding out the additions to the Cisco 12000 Series products are the introduction of two new Cisco ISE-powered line cards. The new Cisco 12000 Series 1-Port Channelized OC-12c/STM-4c (DS1/E1) POS ISE Line Card enables customers to combine dense channelization functionality for low-speed termination with high-density, high-performance OC-192/STM-64 and OC-48/STM-16 interfaces in a single chassis. The Cisco 12000 Series 4-Port OC3/STM1 ATM ISE Line Card affords extensive traffic queuing, shaping and congestion management hardware features and transports ATM over MPLS, providing service providers an opportunity to converge ATM core traffic over an MPLS backbone which consolidates capital and reduces operating costs.

Cisco 7600 Series: Driving New Scale and Services at the Network Edge

The Supervisor Engine 720-3BXL, the new route processor for the Cisco 7600 Series, powers high-density private line, Metro Ethernet, and subscriber service aggregation for QoS-enabled IP/MPLS services with new hardware-based acceleration for IPv6 and Layer 2 and Layer 3 MPLS VPNs. This next-generation processor integrates a 720-Gbps switch fabric with high-performance route processing into a single card, which increases scalability and simplifies operations.

The new Cisco 7600 Series Enhanced FlexWAN module delivers both feature and interface parity with the Cisco 7500 Series so service providers can scale to deliver services at up to 10 Gbps and use their existing IP/MPLS infrastructure to deliver point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services such as Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs and VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) to capture additional revenue. The ability to deploy existing leased-line services such as cRTP, LFI and FRF.12 with integrated Metro Ethernet capabilities in a single platform extends the Cisco 7600 Series platform investment and overall value to service providers and enterprises.

Pricing, and Planned Availability and Further Information
Product Starting Price Planned Availability
Cisco 12800 Series Starting at US $178,500 January 2004
Cisco 12000 Series PRP-2 $28,000 January 2004
Cisco 12000 Series 1-Port Channelized OC-12c/STM-4c (DS1/E1) POS ISE Line Card $165,000 January 2004
Cisco 12000 Series 4-Port OC3/STM1 ATM ISE Line-Card $65,000 January 2004
Cisco 12010 Series chassis $49,900 January 2004
Cisco 12006 Series chassis Starting at $40,000 January 2004
Cisco 7600 Series Supervisor Engine 720-3BXL $40,000 January 2004
Cisco 7600 Series Enhanced FlexWAN Module $15,000 January 2004

Further information on the new additions to the Cisco 12000 Series and Cisco 7600 Series can be found at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns341/ns396/ns301/networking_solutions_audience_promotion0900aecd800cf93b.html. Editor's note: Press are also invited to attend a webcast regarding this announcement starting at 12:00 p.m. PST. Questions can be submitted online. Register for the webcast at: http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=3994&s=1&k=982E02308C8076CB871D4203BE6DCE77