SCIENCE

SAN JOSE, CA -- Cisco Systems, Inc., a leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that France Telecom has selected Cisco as one of its key suppliers for IP networking equipment to expand its high-speed North American backbone. France Telecom's network uses Cisco 12416 Internet Routers as the foundation for the France Telecom IP backbone. The backbone uses the submarine cable TAT14, a connection between New York and Paris, operating at a 10Gpbs rate through Cisco Internet routers. This network uses Cisco's latest OC-192/STM-64 POS (packet over SONET) capabilities on the Cisco 12416 Internet Router to provide 10Gps throughput, which represents the highest performance available in the industry today, with an aggregate throughput of 375 million packets per second (Mpps). France Telecom has been working with Cisco for the past three years to build out its IP network backbones and has implemented MPLS VPN services and high-speed data networking services for a wide range of worldwide customers. On the North American Backbone Network, France Telecom currently uses the Cisco 12000 Internet Router. Through the implementation of a cutting-edge IP network, France Telecom and Cisco are working together to bring to market new, value-added services for France Telecom customers. These new services include worldwide Multicast capabilities based on Cisco 12000 Internet Routers, voice over IP (VoIP) through Cisco voice gateways, which are directly connected to France Telecom's IP Backbone, and DSL services, providing the underlying infrastructure for video. Based on a unique distributed architecture that delivers the IP+Optical networking foundation and service building blocks accelerating the evolution of the Internet, the Cisco 12400 router family delivers the highest levels of scalability, capacity, and performance available today. The 12400 routers are capable of guaranteeing high priority packet delivery, which is critical to meet customers' increasing need for delivery of premium IP services such as VoIP. This innovative combination of features and capabilities make the Cisco 12400 family the first platform deployed by France Telecom for building true 10Gbps OC-192/STM-64 IP+Optical infrastructures. "An IP+Optical infrastructure combines the intelligence of IP and the high capacity of optics to enable service providers like France Telecom to address the dynamic and evolving needs of their customers while at the same time creating new revenue opportunities through high value services," said Kevin Kennedy, senior vice president of Cisco's service provider line of business. "We are pleased France Telecom is continuing its work with Cisco to expand its global service offerings through advanced IP+Optical networking within North America." For more information visit www.cisco.com