Cisco's new router: 12 times faster than rivals

Michael Carroll | March 10, 2010

telecomseurope.net

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Cisco has unveiled a router that allows every movie ever made to be streamed in four minutes

The much-promised 322 terabit per-second CRS-3 router delivers 12 times more traffic capacity than products from Juniper and other rivals, Cisco said.

It is currently in field trials, and is expected to launch in 3Q10, Cisco SVP Pankaj Patel said during a webcast unveiling the router yesterday.

The massive router uses the same chassis route processors, fans, and power systems as the previous router to minimize the cost of upgrading.

Particular emphasis was placed on video capabilities, which Cisco says has enough capacity to handle every person in China to make a video call simultaneously.

The firm already hosts 8,000 Telepresence meetings per week, and it predicts demand for that service, and other video applications, will grow rapidly over the next decade.

“Video is the killer app. It brings things to life,” John Chambers, Cisco’s chairman and CEO said during the webcast.

Reaction to the announcement, which followed weeks of hype from Cisco, was mostly positive. Business Insider said the new router was big enough “to allow every man, woman, and child in China to make a video call at the same time.”

Cisco is pitching CRS3 as an architecture for all next generation web content and services. It links with Cisco’s Nexus and unified computing systems to allow unified delivery of cloud services, which the firm says is necessary to manage the growing use of cloud-style data centers caused by increased use of mobile and video apps.

The router is compatible with IPv6 and core IP/MPLS technologies, which Cisco says has allowed it to include a cloud VPN for Infrastructure as a Service in the architecture. That means it can offer pay-as-you-go capabilities on compute, storage, and network resources.

A Network Positioning System designed to optimize content discovery and delivery by sourcing extra capacity and resources to cope with spikes in demand for services, is also included.

Cisco says the combination of those two elements alone will help cut operators costs, and allow them to become smart pipes for content.

AT&T said it used the CRS3 to power its recent trial of 100Gbps broadband.

Cisco’s announcement boosted stock markets for a second day in succession, the Wall St Journal reports.

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telecomseurope.net

Michael Carroll

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