Cisco Expands its Carrier Ethernet Portfolio

Cisco announced a number of enhancements to its Carrier Ethernet portfolio, including new line cards for its core Cisco 7600 chassis, two new access switches and a Carrier Ethernet platform for wireless backhaul applications.


Cisco has doubled aggregation service capacity with a new Ethernet Series Plus 40G line card for the Cisco 7600 Series Routers. More than 70,000 units of the Cisco 7600 are deployed worldwide. The Cisco 7600 Series 40G line card delivers line-rate multicast and unicast along with per-subscriber hierarchical quality of service (QoS).




The new line card also extends the Cisco IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) capability to the Cisco 7600 Series Router, enabling IPoDWDM in aggregation, at the edge and in the core of a service provider's IP NGN network. Cisco recently announced IPoDWDM enhancements to its CRS-1 Carrier Routing System and XR 12000 Series Routers.


Additionally, Cisco announced enhancements to two key Ethernet access platforms. The Cisco ME 4500 Series increases platform switching capacity by 2.5 times to a total of 160 Gbps and increased its per-slot capacity four-fold to 24 Gbps while adding increased service delivery capability, investment protection, simplified operations, and a green footprint.. The Cisco ME 3400E Series, a next generation of the Cisco ME 3400 Carrier Ethernet Access Switches, is designed to enhance availability, flexibility, manageability and security for Ethernet business services.


Cisco also introduced a new cell-site router, the Cisco Mobile Wireless Router (MWR) 2941, which extends the Cisco mobile-transport-over-pseudowire (MToP) solution and supports the seamless backhaul of IP radio-access network (RAN) traffic from the cell site over Carrier Ethernet. The Cisco MWR 2941 thus makes possible a cost-effective fixed-mobile convergence. This new platform is a key component of the Cisco MToP solution, which also includes the Cisco 7600 Series Router. It allows operators to backhaul 2G, 3G and evolving 4G mobile traffic from the cell site over Carrier Ethernet.


Cisco has also announced a network-availability service-level agreement (SLA) for its Carrier Ethernet solution based on a foundation of lifecycle support services. This contractual agreement between Cisco and service providers offers assurance that best practices are being implemented to optimize network performance and operational efficiencies.http://www.cisco.com