Cisco Extends Leadership in MPLS Deployments with More than 200 Customers Worldwide.

Business Editors

GENEVA, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 2003

Cisco's MPLS Technologies Drive Network Convergence to Deliver

Innovative Layer 2 and Layer 3 Services

Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced a new milestone with its innovative Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology: the adoption of MPLS by more than 200 customers worldwide to offer valuable new services to their business customers. MPLS deployments delivered in Cisco IOS(R) Software have doubled over the past year and include customers such as Bell Canada, BellSouth, BT, T-Systems, Infonet Services, O2, and Telecom Italia.

Cisco also announced today the latest addition to its MPLS solutions portfolio, Cisco IOSMPLS Bandwidth-Assured Layer 2 Services that combines Any Transport over MPLS (AToM), traffic engineering, and quality of service (QoS). Service providers can now connect any transport at Layer 2 over a single IP/MPLS converged infrastructure, representing significant operational and capital cost savings and the ability to offer value-added services such as managed intranets, private voice over IP networks, intranet multimedia, and networked commerce. This solution also enables incumbent and new entrant service providers to operate applications such as third-generation (3G) wireless networks and voice trunking.

"Achieving this major customer milestone further underscores Cisco's clear leadership in MPLS," said Rob Redford, vice president of Marketing at Cisco Systems(R). "The Cisco IOS MPLS architecture simplifies the network while delivering leading service flexibility, policy control, and resiliency. We are excited by the accelerating pace of global adoption by our customers, and we are pleased that they have selected Cisco to help them continue to evolve their networks."

The pioneer of MPLS and the first to deliver a standards-based implementation, Cisco today provides the most-comprehensive suite of MPLS solutions, including traffic engineering, bandwidth services, virtual private network (VPN) services, and migration from Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay. Rounding out the MPLS solution portfolio, the Cisco IP Solution Center (ISC) network-management application provides customers with network resource planning, deployment, configuration and maintenance features for MPLS-based VPNs and services.

The new Cisco MPLS Bandwidth-Assured Layer 2 Services is a network architecture that provides improved MPLS Layer 2 functions to influence network convergence, increased resiliency with MPLS Fast Reroute for AToM circuits, QoS prioritization using Differentiated Services, and better utilization of bandwidth with MPLS traffic engineering. Together these technologies emulate the traditional Layer 2 infrastructure and enable these services to migrate to an IP/MPLS network.

"Today's announcement represents a significant step in enabling MPLS-based carrier infrastructures to deliver leading services to meet customer needs," says Irwin Lazar, Practice Manager, Burton Group. "This functionality provides a flexible solution enabling service providers to deliver Layer 2 and Layer 3 services capable of providing more reliable quality of service over a single IP/MPLS converged infrastructure."

"Cisco's MPLS enhancements are providing us with improved network efficiencies and added functionality for our IP VPN customers," said Danny McLaughlin, managing director, BT Major Business. "The MPLS solution is easily integrated into our infrastructure and offers tremendous interoperability that, in the end, provides operational savings to us as a carrier while allowing us to seamlessly deliver new services to customers."

Availability

Cisco was first to deliver Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards-based MPLS, beginning with Cisco IOS Software Release 12.0 in 1999, and now offers the industry's most-pervasively deployed feature-rich MPLS architecture. The Cisco Bandwidth-Assured Layer 2 Services is shipping now in Cisco IOS Software releases 12.0(24)S, 12.0(25)S, and 12.0(26)S. Service providers interested in testing or deploying Cisco MPLS solutions should contact their local sales office. Additional information about Cisco MPLS solutions and supported platforms can be found at www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk436/tk891/tech_protocol_family_home.html.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at www.cisco.com.

Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, and Cisco IOS are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.