Cisco Enables Wire-Speed Private-Line and Switched Ethernet Services on Cisco ONS 15454 Platform with New Metro Optical Ethernet Solutions.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2002

Cisco ML-Series Interface Card and Multiservice over

SONET/SDH Strategy Extend Cisco COMET Optical Portfolio

to Enable Profitable Data Services

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), today announced the Cisco ML-Series interface card, designed to deliver Ethernet/IP multipoint services over the market-leading Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) at multimillion-packet-per-second performance. The ML-Series interface card is the first technology milestone of the Cisco Multiservice over SONET/SDH (MSOS) Strategy, which is designed to enable high-value data services and greater profitability for service providers.

The Cisco Multiservice over SONET/SDH Strategy expands upon the Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) optical portfolio to further maximize Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) networks for increased profitability through advanced Ethernet, IP, and storage services; enhanced quality of service (QoS) to achieve target service level agreements (SLAs); packet multiplexing for increased network efficiency and scale; and data optimization of the SONET/SDH transport layer.

"With the Cisco ONS 15454 and the ML-Series card, service providers will be able to prioritize multiple applications across their SONET/SDH networks," said David Passmore, Burton Group research director. "In addition, the Cisco Multiservice over SONET/SDH Strategy shows that Cisco is committed to innovative differentiators in optical platforms by combining the capabilities of a full-featured Ethernet switch/router into a next generation SONET mux."

"Multiservice over SONET/SDH solidifies the Cisco commitment to support the data-driven evolution of our service provider and enterprise customers' SONET/SDH infrastructures. Through the MSOS Strategy, we plan to deliver technology innovations that will optimize the SONET/SDH layer to help bring greater profitability to our customers," said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president, Optical Technology Group, Cisco Systems. "The ML-Series card offers multi-layer Ethernet/IP capabilities at wire-speed forwarding rates for augmenting transmission networks with data services."

The market-leading Cisco ONS 15454 MSPP, combined with the ML-Series card, offers several key benefits to metro optical Ethernet networks. With multimillion-packet-per-second performance, as well as Layer 2 Ethernet switching and Layer 3 packet multiplexing, the ML-Series powered Cisco ONS 15454 delivers the highest throughput in an integrated multi-layer solution. The Cisco ONS 15454 platform can be used to deliver private-line Ethernet and switched Ethernet service using either a virtual local-area network (VLAN)-based architecture or an IP-based architecture. This architectural independence in turn supports advanced QoS to enable the creation of voice over IP (VoIP), virtual private network (VPN), and Internet access services. Enhanced QoS also enables SLAs and class-of-service distinctions for advanced or on-demand services. With the Cisco ONS 15454 and ML-Series interface card, data services can also be provisioned through Cisco Transport Manager or Cisco Transport Controller for greater management efficiency.

The ML-Series interface card configurations include a two-port Gigabit Ethernet interface and a 12-port 10/100BASE-T interface. The ML-Series interface card can support multiple packet priorities using 802.1p or the IP type-of-service (TOS) fields and use the classification for queuing and scheduling packets into concatenated SONET/SDH circuits. Additionally, the Cisco IOS(R) Software implementation of the ML-Series card delivers Internet-class packet processing to the carrier-class Cisco ONS 15454. Through Cisco IOS Software interoperability, the ML-Series interface is also complementary to existing Cisco edge routers for greater provisioning efficiency. VLAN and IP architectures are enabled through Cisco IOS Software, as well.

Availability

The Cisco ONS 15454 ML-Series interface card is scheduled to be available first quarter calendar year 2003.

About Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport Portfolio

The Cisco COMET product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety, and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP and optical networking.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Information on Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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