NETWORKS

SAN JOSE, CA -- Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), a worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today unveiled the Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) portfolio, enabling the foundation for accelerating IP+Optical networking. Combining leadership and technology innovation in photonics, packets, protocols, and provisioning, Cisco COMET delivers unprecedented flexibility and capacity to allow service providers and enterprises to maximize existing revenue streams while cost-effectively creating new opportunities throughout the network. Providing an extensive and scalable optical portfolio, the Cisco COMET product line delivers solutions to meet the unique requirements for evolving Metro Edge, Metro Core, Service Point-of-Presence (PoP), and Long-Haul transport. Cisco's complete optical portfolio supports all optical restoration techniques, topologies, and transmission criteria through end-to-end provisioning for maximum service velocity; all services for maximum service density at the Metro Edge; all optical interfaces available at the service edge for maximum service variety; and scalable, efficient optical transport from the Metro Edge through the Long-Haul network for maximum service capacity. ``The Cisco COMET strategy and our complete optical portfolio are designed to best meet our customers' evolving needs in delivering high-value multiservices for both service providers and enterprises,'' said Jayshree Ullal, group vice president, Optical Networking Group, Cisco Systems. ``With a full line of products which maximize Cisco's innovation in photonics, packets, protocols and provisioning, Cisco COMET extends our IP+Optical strategy, further enabling us to bring service velocity, density, variety, and capacity to all areas of the network.'' For service providers, Cisco's optical strategy delivers a complete portfolio to enable accelerated time to revenue, maximum services per wavelength, diversified service offerings, and increased scalability to meet demand and drive profitability. For enterprises, the Cisco COMET portfolio provides high-capacity data, storage, and synchronous optical network (SONET) networking using fiber and optical technologies to build resilient metro infrastructures designed to grow as new technology enhancements are developed. This allows enterprises to securely access and transport their mission-critical applications and transactional data as part of their business continuance and e-business strategies. The enabling technologies in the Cisco COMET portfolio make it possible for service providers and enterprises to maximize their investment in both fiber and optical networking systems. Today, Cisco unveils new enhancements and announces new milestones across its COMET portfolio. Broadening Multiservice Flexibility and Scalability: Cisco ONS 15454 Cisco continues to gain momentum in the Metro Edge with its market-leading ONS 15454 Optical Transport Platform. The Cisco ONS 15454, the most widely accepted metro optical transport platform in the industry, features scalable SONET transport from DS1 to OC-192, integrated optical networking with ITU Grid Wavelengths and DWDM, unprecedented multiservice interfaces, and economic benefits. With over 700 customers and 33,000 systems shipped, the ONS 15454 is an integral part of the Cisco COMET portfolio. New wins, such as Williams Communications' selection of the ONS 15454 as part of the optical transport backbone for its new on-net metropolitan access networks, continue to build momentum for this market-leading platform. (Please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com to view the press release.) Now with new enhancements, the ONS 15454 brings its market-leading multiservice flexibility and scalability to the Metro Core, Service PoP and Long-Haul networks. With 32-channel OC-48 DWDM for increased service density and 10 Gbps support for high-speed transport, the ONS 15454 brings increased capacity to the Metro Core enabling the high volume metro traffic transmitted between large Service PoPs (central offices). Support for Path Protected Mesh Network (PPMN) topologies combined with a larger STS-1 matrix provides efficient STS and optical bandwidth management and provisioning for the Service PoP. Connecting the wide variety of services from the metro to the high speed Long-Haul network, the ONS 15454 Optical Hub Node configuration brings significantly increased bandwidth management capabilities at the STS-1 level to the Service PoP and enables service providers to easily and efficiently integrate operations with an existing ONS 15454 infrastructure. The Cisco ONS 15454 also brings capacity as well as high performance resiliency to the Long-Haul network, in conjunction with the ONS 15800 Series, with both 2.5 and 10 Gbps support for four-fiber bi-directional line switched ring (4F BLSR) topologies. Metro DWDM: Extending Storage Capabilities Cisco builds upon its dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) family of products introducing today new capabilities for the Cisco ONS 15200 Metro DWDM line and announcing new milestones for the Cisco ONS 15540. The ONS 15200 line provided the first wavelength to the building solution when it was introduced in March, delivering scalable wavelength and sub-wavelength services to the Metro Edge and Metro Core. Today Cisco introduced the 2R/3R (Reshaping & Regeneration/Reshaping, Regeneration & Retiming) DWDM interface for the ONS 15200 line, enabling multiple data and storage service transport over the same optical fiber. The ONS 15200 delivers scalable, cost-effective capacity to alleviate the metro bandwidth barrier, and with the 2R/3R interface, the ONS 15200 is now able to transport Fibre Channel traffic. The Cisco ONS 15540 is a high-end metro DWDM system that maximizes service density and variety while delivering unprecedented services on demand through multiple data, storage, and legacy networking support. To enhance interoperability in key enterprise and service provider environments, Cisco has been testing the ONS 15540 for qualifications with numerous industry partners. Previously, Cisco announced achieving Brocade's ``Fabric Award Status'' and completing EMC ``E-Lab Tested'' qualification for EMC Synmmetrix, SRDF, and EMC Connectrix. Today Cisco announced additional qualifications specifically, support for Compaq Data Replication Manager (DRM) disaster recovery solution, support for point-to-point connectivity for IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex technology, and qualification of the Cisco ONS 15540 into the Metromedia Fiber Network WaveChannel Optical Network managed services solution. Lowering Cost of Long-Haul Transport: ONS 15808 Beyond the metro and Service PoP, market drivers such as increased data traffic volumes, the need for lower cost transport, and the elimination of electrical regeneration locations have given rise to a new segment in long-haul transport: the Extended Long-Haul. The majority of long-haul traffic converges around the traditional Long-Haul (0-600 km) and the Extended Long-Haul (600-2000 km) segments and by optimizing network design to meet these customer traffic patterns, service providers can maximize speed, capacity, and distance while lowering networking capital and operational expenditures. For these applications and to reduce transport cost per bit, Cisco today introduced the ONS 15808 Long-Haul/Extended Long-Haul DWDM System. (Please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com to view the press release.) Technology enhancements providing tighter channel spacing, increased channel capacity, higher bit rate, and greatly extended transmission distances enable the ONS 15808 to cost-effectively address service provider requirements for Long-Haul and Extended Long-Haul transport. The ONS 15808 is a 2.5 and 10 Gbps DWDM transmission platform with planned support for 40 Gbps for future growth. In its initial release the ONS 15808 offers 80 channels with 50 GHz spacing. Future releases are planned to support 160 10 Gbps channels for various applications with scalability to support more than 300 10 Gbps channels. Today Cisco also announced that Velocita Corp., a nationwide broadband networks provider, has selected the ONS 15808 for long-haul transport over multiple routes throughout the country. ``The Cisco ONS 15808 enables Velocita to cost-effectively expand the capacity and span distances of our long-haul network,'' said Bob Collet, chief technology officer, Velocita Corp. ``As we continue to roll out our suite of optical transport and IP services, efficiency, scalability and flexibility throughout the network is a paramount requirement in delivering value to our customers.'' End-to-End Provisioning: Cisco Transport Manager Cisco's recognized strength in optical network provisioning continues to advance with Release 3.0 of the Cisco Transport Manager (CTM), the single integrated optical element management system for the entire Cisco ONS 15000 series optical networking systems. With its new A-Z provisioning capability through a TeleManagement Forum (TMF)-compliant CORBA northbound interface, CTM 3.0 is an enabler for operations support system (OSS) automation. With complete end-to-end coverage of Cisco's entire ONS 15000 series, CTM 3.0 enables provisioning circuits from the Metro Edge through the Long-Haul network from a single graphical user interface. Combined with its ability to manage more than 1000 optical nodes per system, CTM 3.0 offers dramatic time and cost savings to service providers in terms of provisioning and service assurance. Having inherent support for SONET, SDH, DWDM, IP, and Ethernet, along with open interfaces to OSSs and a proven record of reliability and scalability, CTM delivers the full power of Cisco's wide range of advanced optical systems to today's network operators. The Cisco COMET optical strategy delivers a complete portfolio to build the foundation to enable profitability through accelerated time to revenue, maximum revenue per wavelength, multiple and diverse revenue sources, and increased bandwidth scalability. About Cisco's Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport Portfolio The Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety, and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP+Optical networking. Supporting TDM, Ethernet, IP, Storage, and Wavelength services over SONET and DWDM with integrated bandwidth management and end-to-end provisioning, the Cisco COMET portfolio offers efficient, unprecedented flexibility and capacity. With the Cisco COMET portfolio, enterprises and service providers drive profitability and accelerate IP+Optical networking.