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Cisco Introduces Intelligent, Scaleable Metro Ethernet Switching Solutions for Service Providers
New Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series Access Switch ,Cisco 7600 Series and Catalyst 6500 Series
Enhancements Help Enable Profitable Service Deployments for Enterprise Customers
INTERLAKEN, Switzerland, Cisco Connection conference – January 20, 2004 – Cisco Systems, Inc.
today announced significant product additions and enhancements to its metro Ethernet switching portfolio
that will help service providers deliver scaleable, profitable and differentiated metro Ethernet services to
their business customers.
The announcement includes the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series, a new line of fixed configuration,
customer-located switches that bring greater intelligence and flexibility to metro access networks. It also
includes a new 48-port Mixed-Media Gigabit Ethernet module for the Cisco 7600 Series and Cisco
Catalyst 6500 Series and product enhancements to its Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switches.
Also included are new performance benchmarks for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco 7600
Series. The benchmarks include scalability results of one million IPv4 routes, 500,000 IPv6 routes or
800,000 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) routes for large scale
deployments of L2 and L3 VPN networks.
“For our Carrier Ethernet Service, we chose Cisco in this instance because their metro Ethernet product
portfolio, including the Cisco 7600, Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 3550, gives us the architectural
flexibility and intelligent service delivery mechanisms to build a scalable and reliable, service-driven,
high-speed Ethernet Swiss wide network,” said Heinz Herren, Head of Marketing Swisscom-Fixnet
Wholesale. “Our business customers are looking for higher bandwidth with increased granularity.”
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"We have tested and tried Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series equipment and found that it provides us
architectural flexibility and intelligent service delivery mechanisms to build a scalable and reliable
service-driven metro network,” commented Ari Brand, Development Manager, Elisa Networks/Capacity
Services. “Both our business- and operator customers are looking for higher bandwidth with increased
granularity. With advanced quality of service (QoS) features, MPLS PE features and improved VLAN-
tunneling capabilities, we are able to provide better service level agreements (SLAs) for our customers.”
The new Catalyst 3750 Metro Series access switch will help enable service providers to deliver more
differentiated metro Ethernet services such as Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs with service SLAs to their
business customers. With redundant AC/DC power and flexible software options, the switch also offers a
cost-effective path for meeting current and future metro business service needs.
The new 48-port Mixed-Media Gigabit Ethernet module for the Cisco 7600 Series and Cisco Catalyst
6500 Series offers service providers increased architectural flexibility as they design scalable metro
networks. This module is ideal for high-performance metro deployments and features 48 “mix and
match” Small Form-factor (SFP) optics to address a full range of media types and distances. In addition,
this module features 40 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) switch fabric connections and 9K Jumbo Frame size
support and is upgradeable to Distributed Forwarding Capability (DFC3A).
Innovative new Cisco IOS features such as VLAN Translation and Class of Service (CoS) Mutation on
the Cisco 7600 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series allow deployment of highly scalable Layer 2 and
Layer 3 VPN service capabilities. VLAN Translation provides Layer 2 VPN subscribers more efficient
access to additional services such as Internet access and IP VPN by allowing these users to utilize their
existing VLAN tags instead of service provider-coordinated VLAN tags. CoS Mutation also gives
service providers the capability to preserve end-user QoS across the service provider network, thereby
improving the richness of their Layer 2 VPN service offering.
New Cisco IOS 802.1Q tunneling capabilities on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series give service providers a
cost-effective, mid-density infrastructure option for deploying transparent LAN services to their business
customers. This enhancement gives providers the ability to utilize a single VLAN for transporting and
preserving customers’ multiple internal VLANs across their metro network.
By combining this new Cisco IOS enhancement with the recently announced Cisco IOS MPLS Virtual
Private LAN Service (VPLS) on the Cisco 7600 Series and the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series, service
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providers can now scale their transparent LAN services to support more customers over broader
geographic areas. By providing Ethernet-based multipoint VPN connectivity over a scalable MPLS
network, Cisco VPLS gives service providers increased support for end-customer peer-to-peer
applications.
"The Cisco 7600 enhancements, the Cisco Catalyst 6500 and 4500 enhancements and the new Cisco
Catalyst 3750 Metro provide the type of increased service flexibility and intelligence that service
providers require for current investments in their metro networks," says Michael Howard, principal
analyst at Infonetics Research. "In today's environment, providers are thinking 'services first' and are
planning many services beyond their current offerings--they often find they must architect their metro
networks with a mix of technologies and intelligent features."
New Cisco IOS software with the latest metro features are available now for the Cisco 7600
Series and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and are scheduled to be available in February 2004 for the
Cisco Catalyst 4500 and 3750 Metro Series.
For more information about the new product and features additions to the Cisco Metro Ethernet
Switching portfolio, please visit www.cisco.com/go/metroethernetswitching
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About Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco
news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, Cisco IOS are registered trademarks of Cisco
Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned
in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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