Cisco introduced a new Elastic Access" portfolio of software and hardware products designed to bring virtualization, programmability, economical scale and architectural convergence in the access segment of the network.
The new products, which are key elements of Cisco's recently introduced Evolved Programmable Network (EPN), leverage software-defined networking (SDN) to deliver new levels of service agility, including "bandwidth on the fly" and Cisco ESP orchestration.
Cisco said its goal is to extend autonomic access operations and management, along with zero-touch nV provisioning, to the furthest end points. Additionally, highly secure auto discovery, auto-configuration, uninterrupted management and configuration repair of network elements is enabled. Automatic provisioning and management for "bandwidth-on-the-fly" extensibility from the core to the most remote access point and back is possible. As a result of Cisco Elastic Access solutions working in conjunction with the Cisco ESP, orchestration, automation and simplification are extended to the last mile, creating the opportunity to reduce provisioning steps by up to 56 percent.
The new Cisco Elastic Access portfolio includes:
Cisco ME 4600 Series Multiservice Optical Access Platform: scales aggregation services and enables operators to offer both end-user and wholesale services using Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology.
Cisco ASR 902 and ASR 920: these are converged time-division multiplexing (TDM) and Ethernet aggregation platforms that offer reduced footprint, cost, and feature compatibility with the ASR 903. They support autonomic networking for IP devices and complement the ASR 901 cell site router.
Cisco ME 1200 Ethernet Access Device: a fully featured service delivery demarcation device is ready for Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) 2.0 services for today's mobile and cloud applications.
Virtualized Elastic Access management
Virtualized management-based controllers on the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) allow cloud-based management to scale to thousands of access devices.
"With this announcement, Cisco is leading the way to deliver the benefits of virtualization, management and software-defined networking-based advances to the last mile," said Liz Centoni, Cisco vice president and general manager of the service provider access group. "These new Cisco Elastic Access products demonstrate our commitment to delivering the most comprehensive and programmatic approach to software-defined networking and network function virtualization in the telecommunications and networking industries. With our elastic core, edge and access products, the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network is the most programmable, end-to-end solution on the market."- Cisco's Evolved Programmable Network (EPN) is the foundation of its Open Network Environment (ONE) architecture. The EPN is the infrastructure layer consisting of physical and virtual devices working together to form an end-to-end unified fabric for a programmable network. The EPN is designed to converge edge, core, and data center functions using Cisco's portfolio of technologies.
