Cisco Expands its Carrier Ethernet Portfolio

Cisco Systems announced two significant products for its Carrier Ethernet portfolio: the Cisco ME 6500 Series Ethernet Switch and the Cisco ONS 15310 Metro Access (MA) multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP), which delivers Carrier Ethernet services over SONET.



The Cisco ME 6500 Series Ethernet switches are designed for deployment in both the access and aggregation layers of a service provider network. As Carrier Ethernet switches, they are optimized for both consumer "triple play" services and business-class virtual private network (VPN) services over fiber optic networks. The Cisco ME 6500 Series Ethernet switches are available in two models with list prices starting at $24,000.



Cisco's existing Carrier Ethernet switching portfolio already includes the Cisco ME 3400 Series Ethernet Access switches.



The city of Almere in The Netherlands is using Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches and Cisco ME 3400 Series Ethernet Access Switches to connect all public buildings and not-for-profit organizations over a fiber network. The network will deliver symmetrical broadband at up to 2 Gbps and shared services including telephony using Cisco IP phones, centralized data backup and storage, and video-over-IP remote surveillance. With a Cisco Content Delivery Network, educational TV programmes can be delivered from central servers to schools on demand via IP. The City of Almere public services extranet will be completed by April 2006.



The Cisco ONS 15310-MA system is a modular and fully redundant access platform that complements the Cisco ONS 15454 system. The Cisco ONS 15310-MA platform supports existing time division multiplexing (TDM) services with a high-density of DS1/DS3 ports, as well as Ethernet services, over SONET-based networks. The Cisco ONS 15310-MA system is a hardened platform suited for deployment in RT cabinets or in-buildings, and small central offices. In supports 50msec SONET or Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) protection. The Cisco ONS 15310-MA platform varies in price based on configuration. A basic configuration model starts at a list price of $18,000.



Both the Cisco ME 6500 Series and the Cisco ONS 15310-MA platforms have received Metro Ethernet Forum's MEF9 Carrier Ethernet certifications.

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