ITU TELECOM WORLD, HONG KONG, December 4, 2006 - Cisco today announced that T-Com, the broadband and fixed network business area of Deutsche Telekom A.G., has certified and deployed the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System as the core terabit routing system in its multi-vendor Internet Protocol/Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) network. The CRS-1 system is being used to provide the capacity and future scalability to handle the growth in traffic from T-Com's expanding high-speed broadband customer base and innovative services, such as the "T-Home" IPTV and video-on-demand service. The production network certification was carried out at one of T-Com's major points-of presence (PoPs) following extensive tests for performance, in-service upgradability and scalability. The Cisco CRS-1 system represents the 500th system to be shipped to customers since its launch in May 2004.
The Cisco CRS-1 system is configured with a 40 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) IP over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (IPoDWDM) interface, an industry-leading solution that seamlessly integrates element, control and management between the IP layer and the optical DWDM layer, helping T Com to cost-efficiently increase throughput of its existing fiber infrastructures to manage traffic growth from video and IPTV services.
Tony Bates, senior vice president, Service Provider Routing Technology Group, Cisco, said: "More than 60 customers worldwide have chosen to deploy the CRS-1 system and today's announcement places it at the core of one of Europe's largest IP/MPLS networks. T-Com has taken a leading role in shaping and driving innovation in the broadband services market in Germany and this achievement is a great testament to the close collaboration between the T-Com and Cisco teams."
T-Com operates one of the largest multi-vendor IP/MPLS networks in Europe. This IP/MPLS network follows the Cisco IP NGN architecture and now incorporates the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System in the core, Cisco 12000 Series routers at the provider edge, Cisco 10008 Series routers as Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) platforms and Cisco Catalyst ® 6509 Series switches. Deutsche Telekom's "T-Home" service is delivered through Cisco set-top boxes from the KiSS series called the X 300T Media Receiver which is the first in the world to support Microsoft TV software. (For more information, please refer to the previous release "Deutsche Telekom's T-Online to Offer High-Definition IPTV Service over Cisco IP Next-Generation Network" http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_042806.html).
The Cisco CRS-1 system was fully deployed in the network after an extensive testing and certification process conducted by T-Com in close cooperation with Cisco Advanced Services team. A series of functions were tested and in particular, the capabilities of the CRS-1 to support in-service software upgrades and the ability to increase capacity of the platform with additional line-card chassis to a multi-chassis configuration without interruption to network operation were validated by T-Com in their test facilities.