Ray, All, what do you think of this "IP+ATM WAN Core" press release from Cisco?
Curtis B., where do MPLS and Tag now stand with respect to IETF RFC ratification? I may be losing touch (probably have), but I thought these were still in some ways up for comment and review.
Regards, Frank Coluccio
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Cisco Announces IP+ATM WAN Core Solutions to Build
Tomorrow's Telecommunications Infrastructure
June 2, 1998
SAN JOSE, Calif.-- New WAN Core Switch Leverages
Optical Internetworking Capabilities to Further Lower
the Cost of Provisioning
Broadband Services
Cisco Systems, Inc. today introduced the Cisco TGX
8750 optical core switch as part of its comprehensive
portfolio of IP+ATM solutions that enable service
providers to deliver the high-value services of the future.
Cisco's WAN core solutions tightly integrate IP and
ATM technologies through Tag Switching, the first
implementation of the emerging Multiprotocol Label
Switching (MPLS) standard. Tag Switching allows IP
services and ATM services to be delivered on a single
infrastructure with dynamic bandwidth sharing between
services.
The TGX 8750 optical core switch is fully MPLS
compliant and features hierarchical Private Network to
Network Interface (PNNI), SONET/SDH Automatic
Protection Switching and OC-48c optical internetworking
support.
Building up the hierarchical PNNI protocol, the TGX
8750 core ATM network can be scaled to many
thousands of switching nodes that support Switched
Virtual Circuits (SVCs), soft PVCs and
point-to-multipoint VCs. For complete control over voice
and data traffic priorities, the switch supports per-VC
queueing and allows full network utilization and minimal
service degradation using explicit-rate ABR control. All
of the PNNI and Tag Switching capabilities are now
tightly integrated into Cisco IOS(R) software.
Cisco's WAN-core solutions are focused on providing
the speeds and resiliency required to meet the high
demands of serving the network edge.
"Cisco is on a roll," said Ron Jeffries of Jeffries
Research. " They've clearly staked out the WAN and will
be an aggressive competitor in delivering the
QoS-enabled Internet of tomorrow. By offering Cisco
IOS software functionality throughout the WAN edge
and core, their customers will have end-to-end
application support throughout the entire network."
The TGX 8750 provides full resilience capabilities. In
addition to scaleable and robust routing protocol
support (PNNI, OSPF, IS-IS), the TGX 8750 optical core
switch provides complete "hot-swappable" redundancy
of switch fabrics, processor cards, power supplies and
line cards. Line card redundancy of OC-3c, OC-12c,
OC-48 and OC-48c ports is supported through SONET
1+1 Automatic Protection Switching, which provides
extremely rapid restoration of services.
Recently, Cisco announced its five-phase optical
internetworking strategy to develop a data-optimized
public network with emerging high-capacity, high-speed
technologies. The TGX 8750 optical core switch is a
continuation of the second phase of the strategy, where
Cisco is delivering switches and routers that interface
directly to the optical networking layer, avoiding the
costs and bandwidth limitations associated with Time
Division Multiplexing (TDM). The TGX 8750 supports
both channelized OC-48 interfaces and clear channel or
concatenated OC-48c interfaces.
Cisco designed the TGX 8750 optical core switch to
bring OC-48c capability to the core at a price that leads
the industry. The TGX optical core switch starts at
$60,000 and offers OC-48c ports at $60,000 and OC-48
ports at $45,000. Cisco will field trial the TGX optical core
switch later this year and will ship the product beginning
in 1999.
Cisco's WAN-core solutions fully leverage Cisco IOS
software to ensure end-to-end and multivendor network
interoperability within carrier ATM networks. In
addition, the Cisco Service Management software suite
enables end-to-end planning, provisioning, operating
and billing for IP+ATM services across a multivendor
networking environment. By promoting and
implementing industry standards, Cisco is enabling
service providers to more rapidly evolve their networks
to offer the full set of IP+ATM services.
"We designed the TGX optical core switch to deliver
OC-48c capability and allow our customers to smoothly
scale their networks to terabit speeds," said Morgan
Littlewood, director of marketing with Cisco's WAN
Business Unit. "For terabit networks to develop quickly,
the industry has to provide compelling service
propositions, provision vast numbers of customer ports
and access systems and then leverage the cost
structures of optical internetworking to the fullest extent.
Cisco is tackling the whole problem, including the
logistical challenges of evolving networks."
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