Cisco expands Carrier Ethernet lineup

Cisco this week is unveiling enhancements to its Carrier Ethernet lineup designed to scale and upgrade services for business, residential and mobile users.

The product extensions include a doubling of the aggregation service capacity of the 7600 series metro Ethernet router with a new 40Gbps IP-over-wavelength division multiplexing (IPoWDM) line card; increased switching capacity for the ME 4500 Ethernet access platform; a new ME 3400 series device with a redundant power supply; and a cell-site router for mobile backhaul applications.

The product extensions are intended to address bandwidth demands resulting from the increased adoption of consumer and business IP services, driven chiefly by video. Cisco forecasts IP traffic to increase sixfold between 2007 and 2012, with video representing more than half the consumer traffic.

Similarly, mobile data is expected to grow by 125 percent from 2007 to 2012.

That sets the stage for the 40G line card for the 7600. The card delivers line-rate multicast and unicast along with per-subscriber hierarchical quality of service, Cisco says.

This line card doubles the per-slot capacity of the 7600 router.

Its IPoWDM capabilities extend this fiber capacity extension capability to the aggregation space of a service provider's network, which could help them minimize the additional capital expenses associated with traffic growth. The IPoWDM interface enables 40Gbps throughput over existing 10Gbps optical transport networks, effectively quadrupling the performance of those networks.

This throughput gain is achieved without the purchase and operation of additional cross connects and transponders, which serve as the intermediary interconnects between routers and the optical plane, according to Cisco. Cisco recently announced IPoDWDM enhancements to its CRS-1 Carrier Routing System and XR 12000 Series Routers.

The ME 4500 access platform is designed to deliver Ethernet service to the home. The 4500 increases previous ME platform switching capacity by 2.5 times, to a total of 160Gbps, and increases per-slot capacity fourfold to 24Gbps.

The Cisco ME 3400E series delivers Ethernet services to businesses. It is designed to enhance availability and security for these services through its redundant power supply.

The new cell-site router is called the Mobile Wireless Router (MWR) 2941. It supports mobile-transport-over-pseudowire for backhaul of IP radio-access network traffic from the cell site over Carrier Ethernet, which may be more cost-effective that TDM circuits for backhaul.

Cisco also announced a network-availability service-level agreement for its Carrier Ethernet products. This contractual agreement between Cisco and service providers is intended to ensure optimal network performance, uptime and availability, Cisco says.

All new and enhanced products will be available in the fourth quarter.

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