CISCO RECONFIRMS LEADERSHIP IN TEST OF HIGH-END ROUTERS; DEMONSTRATES 100% LINE RATE IP AND MPLS FORWARDING FOR 2.5GBPS OC-48 AND 10GBPS OC-192 THROUGHPUT.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, has said that the Cisco 12416 Internet router has placed first in nine out of sixteen tests in the industry's first high-end routing bake-off conducted by Network Test. The test against various industry competitors reviewed critical issues found in IP core network applications and implementations while simulating seven times the Internet traffic service providers experience today.

Cisco placed first in every category where the new 1-port OC-192 and 4-port OC-48 line cards and 10-Gbps switch fabric were tested. (Some tests had ties for first.) The tests also confirmed that Cisco was the only vendor whose OC-192 systems did not cause packet misordering problems.

"In rigid performance tests Cisco proved it could process a torrent of data at line rate on both our OC48 and OC192 testbeds," said David Newman, president of Network Test, an independent benchmarking and network design consultancy. "In fact, the Cisco 12416 Internet Router turned in the highest single data rate achieved in the entire test: more than 271 million packets per second."

Newman continued, "We were thrilled to have Cisco participate and validate our test design. Cisco's new 12416 Internet router made a very impressive debut in our tests, showing it has the right stuff to compete in what looks to be a two-horse race."

"It is gratifying to have the impartial judges at Network Test validate Cisco's performance leadership. Cisco was the only vendor to deliver line rate performance for all of the IP and MPLS forwarding tests for both OC-48 and OC-192," said Rob Redford, senior director of marketing, IP POP systems business unit at Cisco. "When you combine industry-leading performance with our other unique advantages, including guaranteed priority packet delivery, the highest capacity, and full line rate performance even in a fully loaded system, our customers are well positioned to provide high bandwidth as well as profitable premium IP services such as VoIP and video."

Cisco offers its customers the industry's most comprehensive investment protection. Unlike competitors who offer no upgrade path, each Cisco 12400 Internet router supports all current Cisco 12000 Internet router line cards, and OC-48 enabled Cisco 12016 Internet routers can be field upgraded to a Cisco 12416 Internet router that supports 10-Gbps per slot and a capacity of 375 million packets per second. Cisco also continues to deliver technology innovations such as Very Short Reach Optics (VSR), offering OC-192 intra-POP connectivity at half of the cost of competitive offerings. Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) is another cost-effective tool that enables metro, regional, and intra-POP rings with high reliability.

The flagship Cisco 12000 series Internet routers are based on a unique distributed architecture that delivers the IP+Optical networking foundation and service building blocks to accelerate the evolution of the Internet. The latest member of the family, the router, was launched on January 31, 2001. The Cisco 12400 family delivers the highest levels of scalability and performance available today and are the only systems capable of guaranteeing high priority packet delivery, which is absolutely necessary to meet customers' increasing need for delivery of premium IP services. This unique combination of features and capabilities make the Cisco 12400 family the premier platform for building true 10Gbps OC-192/STM-64 IP+Optical infrastructures.

The testing methodology and results of the Network Test can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.networktest.com/testresults.html. The test was sponsored by Light Reading.