Tunneling to the Core
Cisco Systems Inc. in May debuted a largescale core router that offers continuous operation and the ability to offer a variety of services that appear as if they are running on separate boxes. The new 40gbps system generally is considered a competitive move by Cisco against Juniper Networks Inc., which two years ago came out with a modular core router that scales up to 10gbps. “Cisco understands they’re quite late to market with a core router,” says Karen Livoli, manager of the product marketing group at Juniper, whose core router is now in production networks with about 60 customers. The Cisco Carrier Routing System (Cisco CRS-1) is a multishelf solution that scales from 1.2tbps up to 92tbps, offers what Cisco says is the first OC768c packet interface and includes new operating system OS software called Cisco IOS XR that allows for maintenance and upgrades of the CRS-1 without service interruption. Related to the IOS XR is a service separation architecture built into the CRS-1 called the Cisco Intelligent ServiceFlex, which can separate traffic and network operations on a per-service basis. “This OS is a new OS, and it’s highly modular in its approach,” says Tony Bates, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s routing technology group. “We now can modularize certain feature sets and also whole applications. You can have separate instances of whole applications running in one device.” It also enables “virtual routing,” meaning one box can appear to the network as separate boxes, he says. “Routers now will not be thought of as a single box, it will be a systems approach,” adds Bates. He explains that will be particularly useful for wholesale service providers.
Asking for Seconds
SBC Services Inc. expects to use AFC’s AdvancedVoice and UniversalDSL solutions through a new agreement between the companies. “This new agreement extends a longstanding relationship between the companies, building upon AFC’s strong support of SBC initiatives to aggressively deploy broadband services,” says John Schofield, chairman, president and CEO of AFC. “This agreement expands our addressable market to include large-line-size and adjunct DSL applications, as well as residential and business fiber access.” Delivering narrowband, wideband and broadband services, AFC’s AdvancedVoice solution enables the evolution of carrier networks at their own pace. AFC’s UniversalDSL solution can be deployed in both integrated (voice plus DSL) and overlay (DSL only) applications. The company’s installed base of AccessMAX systems is more than 100,000.
