Below is a release from Cisco... The company that doesn't innovate. <chuckle> Let's all get real here for a moment. This release is filled with technology and solution innovation....delivering products and solutions that help customers build high performance cost effective networks. The comments made by Bay CEO House and Stockman are simply a reflection of their bitterness that Cisco has not delivered prestandard products - like gig. ethernet. House would love Cisco to take him up on this dare. Because, let's face it - that's what this issue really is - a dare and nothing else but. Chambers and Cisco however are too smart for this pathetic attempt to pull Cisco down to Bay's level. Cisco's sights are set with the real competition - LU and NT. Bay, Asnd, and Coms are still dangerous and are watched, but these guys can only hope to be mentioned in the same breath as the premier networking company - CISCO!!!! Read on!
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Cisco Delivers Third Phase of Data/Voice/Video Integration Strategy
Multiservice Gateways Enable Seamless Connectivity, New Business Applications
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- March 23, 1998 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today
announced that it is delivering the third phase of its data/voice/video integration strategy, which ultimately will encompass all aspects of corporate enterprise environments.
During this third phase, Cisco is introducing new, multiservice gateway products that will enable seamless connectivity and help corporate enterprise customers reduce costs, improve network performance/management and deploy new business applications.
"With these solutions, Cisco is bolstering what is already the industry's most complete portfolio for integrating data, voice and video," said Sabine Velmeden, head of the network section at Deutsche Post AG, Europe's largest postal enterprise.
Today's announcement is part of a five-phase, open systems and technology strategy designed to help users integrate data, voice and video on an end-to-end basis - from smaller access locations to larger backbone sites. The strategy uses Cisco IOS(TM) software to seamlessly deliver voice over Internet Protocol (IP), voice over Frame Relay and voice over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) throughout multiservice network environments.
Phase three of Cisco's data/voice/video integration strategy focuses on gateways between the different environments in a multiservice,
mixed-technology environment. These include gateways from network protocols to Private Branch Exchange (PBX) protocols to public voice and ISDN switching protocols; gateways from IP to ATM; gateways from low-speed access to broadband backbone switching; and gateways from circuit switching to packet and cell switching. Only a network with this variety of gateway capabilities can become a ubiquitous information infrastructure.
The multiservice gateway solutions announced today will enable customers to reduce costs by avoiding long-distance toll charges, centralize dial plan management and take advantage of new business applications such as distance learning and intranet/Internet fax and telephony.
Further, users now can extend PBX features (such as calling party ID and call transfer) network wide over IP and ATM networks.
New Gateway Products Enhance Cisco's Broad Range of Enterprise Multiservice Solutions
In this third phase, Cisco is introducing the Cisco 2600 series modular access router for remote branch offices, a new gateway from
circuit-to-packet and cell switching. The company also is announcing Cisco Voice Manager, a Java-based management tool for end-to-end management of the networked voice environment.
New gateways from low-speed access to backbone switching include the high density, Universal Switching Module (UXM) for Cisco's IGX(TM) ATM switch. And new gateways from IP to ATM in this phase include new ATM port adapters for the Cisco 7500 and 7200 series of high-end routers.
Additionally, Cisco announced that all of its multiservice platforms -
including Cisco 2600 and 3600 series routers, MC3810 multiservice access concentrators, and IGX and LightStream(R) 1010 ATM switches - will support the Q.SIG PBX network signaling protocol, ISDN basic rate and primary rate interfaces (BRI and PRI), and public ISDN gateways by the end of 1998. These capabilities will provide Cisco multiservice network users seamless global connectivity and network-wide calling features such as transfer and calling-party displays.
Through Cisco IOS software, Cisco multiservice platforms support the
International Telecommunications Union's (ITU's) H.323 call control
specification, enabling interoperable audio and video conferencing over multiservice networks.
Cisco 2600 Series Brings Versatility, Integration and Power to Remote
Branch Offices
The Cisco 2600 series modular access router provides a cost-effective
solution for extending data/voice integration, dial concentration and
Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to remote branch offices and
complements Cisco's industry-leading 2500 and 3600 series branch office solutions. (See accompanying release.)
Sharing field-upgradable, modular interfaces with Cisco's popular 3600 and 1600 series products, the Cisco 2600 series helps customers protect their network investments while reducing inventory, training and deployment costs. With support for Cisco's voice/fax network modules, first introduced for the Cisco 3600 series in October 1997, the 2600 series features a powerful reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture that enables differentiated quality of service, advanced security features and integration of Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocols.
Cisco Voice Manager Simplifies Configuration, Management of Voice-Over-Data Networks
Cisco also introduced today Cisco Voice Manager, a Java-based application that greatly simplifies the configuration and management of voice-over-data networks. (See accompanying release.) Cisco Voice Manager currently is supported on Cisco 2600 and 3600 series routers and AS5300 universal access servers and will be extended to additional Cisco platforms in the future.
The Cisco Voice Manager takes the complexity out of large voice-over-IP networks by enabling voice interface and dial plan configuration in batch mode. Cisco Voice Manager monitors end-to-end voice quality for each call on the network in compliance with the ITU G.113 specification. Cisco Voice Manager measures QoS parameters such as delay, packet loss and type of service. It also offers detailed reporting, including Call Detail Records, Call Volume Reports and Active Call Reports.
Cisco IGX and 7500/7200 Series ATM Modules Provide Seamless Multiservice Integration
The new, Universal Switching Module (UXM) for the Cisco IGX ATM switch
provides a set of fully featured, high-density ATM interfaces on the IGX to meet today's wide-area networking ATM requirements. When coupled with existing IGX Frame Relay, voice transport, channel-associated signaling (CAS) and common channel signaling (CCS) voice switching, and circuit data interfaces, a complete, efficient multiservice environment can be implemented.
The UXM will support fully standards-compliant interfaces ranging from
T1/E1 to OC-3/STM-1, along with full traffic management (TM 4.0) support and inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA). These modules enhance the current QoS performance features, allowing users to scale multiservice ATM functionality to meet their evolving wide-area network demands.
For enterprise customers that choose ATM for WAN connectivity, Cisco 7500 and 7200 series routers now support a family of WAN-capable ATM port adapters. With a choice of DS3, E3, OC-3/STM-1 single mode (intermediate and long reach) or multimode interfaces, the enhanced ATM port adapters provide key ATM traffic-shaping features needed to efficiently use ATM WAN services. The new port adapters also have hardware support for ATM Available Bit Rate (ABR) service built in, enabling network managers to take advantage of cost-effective, high-throughput ABR WAN services as they become available from service providers.
Cisco Offers Complete Portfolio for Data/Voice/Video Integration
The new multiservice gateway solutions announced today complement Cisco's existing array of edge devices, which can interface with telephony systems and transport traffic into the backbone infrastructure. These multiservice WAN access devices include MC3810 multiservice access concentrators, the AS5X00 family of universal access servers, Catalyst(R) 5500 series LAN switches, LightStream 1010 and Cisco IGX ATM switches and Cisco 2600, 3600, 7500 and 7200 series routers.
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