RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC., September 27, 2004 - Cisco Systems®, Inc. today announced that it has passed U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) interoperability tests. Certification by the DoD's Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) confirms that all aspects of Cisco's IP telephony solutions conform to the interoperability, reliability, resilience and security requirements of the DoD's multi-vendor voice network.

Cisco has achieved JITC PBX2 certification, allowing DoD organizations to deploy Cisco IP Telephony solutions for switched call connections. Cisco is now working toward PBX1 certification, which would allow DoD organizations to migrate Command and Control users to the same Cisco infrastructure.

"This certification represents a significant milestone for enterprise IP networks," said Captain Chris Christopher, Deputy Director for Future Operations, Communications, and Business Initiatives of the U.S., Navy's NMCI Office, who is responsible for emerging technologies and solutions within the world's largest Intranet. "It indicates that voice over an IP network has reached a level of maturity in the sector lifecycle that allows it to be viewed as an application like any other application. The PBX2 certification is an exciting development along with the other VoIP certifications that have happened in recent months. NMCI sees VoIP as a horizontal IP application which is vendor agnostic, allowing for a variety of choices combined with simplifying enterprise management."

The Cisco IP telephony system enables the transmission of data, voice, and video traffic over a single Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) infrastructure. DoD organizations deploying Cisco IP telephony stand to realize increased productivity, greater business flexibility and reduced operational costs that come from a converged network. The Cisco IP telephony system also establishes a solid foundation for the deployment of advanced, feature-rich services such as unified messaging, multimedia conferencing, collaborative contact centers and interactive multimedia response systems.

"Our AVVID infrastructure will ultimately enable DoD agencies to achieve their long-term vision of network-centric operations, enabling unprecedented collaboration capabilities and speed of communications," said Bruce Klein, Federal area vice president, Cisco Systems. "Deploying our JITC-certified IP telephony solution is a good incremental step in that process."

Added Ed Carney, vice president of Cisco's Government Systems Unit, "JITC certification underscores the results of other independent tests that demonstrate the high level of security and stability of Cisco IP telephony solutions in even the most difficult environments. It also assures DoD customers that our solution will interoperate with their existing equipment and enable them to migrate to IP at their own pace."

The certified elements include:

• Cisco CallManager 3.3 call processing software, extending enterprise telephony features and capabilities to packet telephony network devices such as IP phones, media processing devices, voice over IP gateways and multimedia applications;
• Cisco Catalyst 3550 switches, stackable, multilayer switches that provide high-performance IP routing, advanced quality of service (QoS), and enhanced data security across the network, while maintaining the simplicity of traditional local area network (LAN) switching;
• Cisco Catalyst 4500 and 6500 switches, supporting converged services from the wiring closet to the core to the wide area network (WAN) edge, and
• Cisco 2600 and 3700 gateways, providing on-board LAN/WAN connectivity and new high-density service modules in a compact form factor.