Cisco: new mobile access router to extend edge of network to new frontier.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) has announced the Cisco 3200 Series Mobile Access Router, a new solution optimized for mobile vehicular applications that pioneers a shift in the way organizations communicate and share information across wireless networks. The Cisco 3200 Series Mobile Access Router facilitates mobility of networks in motion--entire networks of communication devices in moving vehicles such as airplanes, ships, tanks and trains--and is designed for "always-on" connectivity.

The Cisco 3200 Series is a compact, high-performance access router that is designed to provide industry-leading security in data, voice and video communications, and seamless mobility and interoperability. Enabled by standards-based Mobile IP, the Cisco 3200 Series extends the edge of the IP network, delivering new, mission-critical applications for the defense, public safety and commercial transportation markets. Mobile Networks, a feature in Cisco IOS Software, further extends the value of Mobile IP by allowing an entire network, not just a single client, to stay connected while in motion.

The Cisco Mobile Access Router addresses the key communications challenges faced by users who require access to information, regardless of movement or location. These challenges include the requirements for seamless mobility while roaming among wireless networks; unique power, size and weight specifications to fit equipment in vehicles; maintaining network security policies; and interoperability between the networks and applications of different organizations or agencies. The Cisco 3200 Series addresses these needs with features that are designed to maximize "always-on"--or uninterrupted and secure connectivity--for personnel and organizations that require real-time access to mission-critical information while in motion.

The Cisco Mobile Access Router supports Cisco's vision for network-centric mobility by enabling the evolution of standards-based IP communications with uninterrupted access to information for networks in motion. With this communications transformation, public safety personnel, for example, can now make real-time, and often life-saving decisions with information at their fingertips. This real-time access empowers personnel to make faster, better, more informed decisions, ultimately increasing their productivity and effectiveness in the field.

Today, rich applications such as IP video surveillance, mug shot and fingerprint scanners, law enforcement data systems, and government agency databases can now be accessed in real-time by agency, field, and headquarters personnel.

"We all know the world of emergency response has changed," said Sergeant Dean Zanone of the Seal Beach, California, Police Department, a Cisco 3200 Series customer. "Responding appropriately requires the best available communication technologies. Ubiquitous, IP-based wireless communications, incorporating Cisco's mobile access router, provides us the real-time information that we need to properly deploy our considerable resources and meet any challenge."

Lufthansa Systems and Lufthansa Technik, one of the largest suppliers of aviation services in the world, are working with Cisco to deliver the first standards-based Inflight Networking Components for airline cabin infrastructure.

"We believe the Cisco 3200 Series Mobile Access Router is a key enabler to extend our network connectivity from existing ground-based IP networks and applications to in-flight IP networks," said Bernhard Conrad, senior vice president Engineering and Production Completion Center and head of approved design organization Lufthansa Technik. "And since this is a standards-based solution, we are not locked into a proprietary system, which means we have greater flexibility for our customers to add new applications and incorporate future technologies."

The Cisco 3200 Series Mobile Access Router is a complete mobile networking solution designed for incorporation into customized communications systems that are installed by system integrators for mobile vehicular environments, such as land, air and sea. Cisco has teamed with a number of leading system integrators to deliver the Cisco 3200 Series to defense, public safety and transportation customers.