Cisco Extends Mid-Range Routing Leadership with New Multiservice Enhancements to the Cisco Mid-Range Routing Family.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2002

Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced hardware and software enhancements across the company's mid-range routing product line -- the Cisco 7200, 7300, 7400, 7500 and 7600 Series Routers -- that extend the delivery of intelligent services to the network edge while providing an integrated path to next-generation MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) infrastructures and Internet Protocol (IP)-based capabilities. This enhanced network intelligence provides advantages to both service provider and enterprise customers. Service providers will find they are able to deploy a newly cost-effective set of next generation services. Enterprises will be able to introduce the advanced Quality of Service (QoS), high availability, and security services necessary for them to support critical network-enabled applications to increase business productivity.

Cisco today also announced 14 new platforms and several enhancements to its broad portfolio of modular access routers (for more information visit the Cisco Newsroom at News@Cisco). Together, the new products and enhancements further extend Cisco's comprehensive router portfolio further from the single corporate teleworker and small office, to the enterprise branch and headquarters, through to the service provider's network edge.

The Service Edge with Cisco Family of Mid-Range Routers

Cisco's family of mid-range routers deliver the multiservice capabilities required for public carrier service creation, enabling seamless transport of the installed base of Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)/HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) traffic, along with new Metro Ethernet traffic, through a new Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) service offering over a common MPLS-based core backbone.

Known as Any Transport over MPLS (AToM), this advanced Cisco IOS(R) Software-based service offering will allow public carriers to converge multiple disparate data networks onto a single MPLS-based backbone to save both capital and operational costs. This carrier transition to an MPLS backbone, while transparent to end users, will lay the groundwork for future expanded service offerings and revenue-generating opportunities. Using its MPLS foundation, AToM also offers advanced, revenue generating services, such as QoS and Traffic Engineering, that allow service providers to charge based on traffic class and maximize network utilization.

In addition, the Cisco mid-range routing family provides integrated support for the next-generation of IP networking. The second phase of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) technology, supported within Cisco IOS software, is now available on the Cisco 7200, 7400, 7500 to ensure continued growth of the Internet into new applications, while maintaining compatibility with existing Internet services. Phase II of Cisco's IPv6 solution offers tighter integration into IPv4, and brings comprehensive traffic filtering support, scalable routing, cost-effective integration of IPv6 services over MPLS infrastructures, and distributed switching to the mid-range routing family.

Delivery of these new Layer 2 MPLS VPN and IPv6 solutions are anchored by improvements to Cisco's OSS (Operational Support System) for the Cisco 7000 family, the Cisco Element Manager Software (EMS). Cisco EMS brings comprehensive management, along with deployment and provisioning functionality, to these multiservice routing platforms to help both enterprise and service provider customers contain operating costs and further improve service levels.

Cisco 7600 Series -- New Deployment Options in Multiservice Networks

The Cisco 7600 Series is a highly scalable and versatile system, delivering high touch Layer 2 and Layer 3 services for Wide Area Network (WAN) edge aggregation, Metro Ethernet aggregation, Internet Data Center and Enterprise head-end applications. In addition to the new two-port OC-48c/STM-16 POS (Packet over SONET)/DPT (Dynamic Packet Transport) Optical Services Module (OSM) for Metro IP applications, there is also a new one-port Channelized OC-12/STM-4 OSM and a new one-port Channelized OC-48/STM-16 OSM which deliver both capital and operational cost savings through improved circuit provisioning efficiency and port density.

The enhanced multiservice feature set of the Cisco 7600 gives service providers a single system on which to deploy service-rich high performance Ethernet, ATM, and Frame Relay leased line services at the edge of their networks. The Cisco 7600 now delivers new capabilities for Layer 2 Frame Relay support on channelized and POS modules, new Layer 2 ATM support with delivery of bridged RFC (Request for Comments) 1483 Private Virtual Circuits (PVCs) to complement existing support for routed PVCs, and new Metro Ethernet aggregation features such as 802.1Q-in-Q hierarchical VLAN mapping to Layer 2 Ethernet transport over MPLS.

The platform also provides full support for Layer 3 RFC 2547bis MPLS VPNs, providing an attractive total suite of Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN features for revenue-generating carrier services. Complementary feature enhancements to the platform include hardware accelerated, advanced QoS services such as CBWFQ (Class-based Weighted Fair Queuing) and LLQ (Low-Latency Queuing), which are also particularly useful in enterprise deployments where delay-sensitive applications requiring prioritization with low-latency per class of service can be handled more efficiently for better traffic management and network performance.

Cisco 7300 Series -- Increased Interface Versatility with High-Performance Feature Delivery

The Cisco 7300 Series is a compact, high performance Enterprise aggregation or Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) router, service-enabling the network edge where high-performance, intelligent IP and multiprotocol services are required. Several new line cards for the Cisco 7300 Series are now available: a six-port clear channel DS-3 line card, a two-port OC-3c/STM-1 ATM line card, a two-port OC-3c/STM-1 POS line card, and one-port and 2-port OC-12c/STM-4 POS line cards. These new cards enhance the versatility of the Cisco 7300 Series platform, with interface options ranging from DS-3 to OC-48c/STM-16 connectivity.

Like the Cisco 7600, new hardware-accelerated, intelligent QoS services for the platform such as classification and prioritization with WRED (Weighted Random Early Detection) ensure that mission-critical and time sensitive traffic receives the appropriate priority on the network. The 7300 also now delivers hardware-accelerated support for Frame Relay Encapsulation, RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding), and 802.1Q VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) trunking. Additionally, the Cisco 7300 now offers new high availability features through available route processor redundancy that reduces expensive network downtime and operating costs.

Cisco 7500 Series -- Increased Performance with Investment Protection

The Cisco 7500 Series is a chassis-based router designed to deliver the breadth of services, diverse interfaces, reliability, and performance required for network edge applications. The addition of the Route Switch Processor 16 (RSP 16) and Versatile Interface Processor 6-80 (VIP 6-80) to the Cisco 7500 Series brings higher performance over an extensive range of distributed features for both enterprise and service provider customers who require high-performance, high-speed interfaces and applications. Current customers will be able to immediately leverage their installed base of 7500 Series routers and port adapters, using the new RSP16 and VIP6-80 to provide additional scalability and performance to existing deployments.

Pricing, Projected Availability and Other Information

Product                           Pricing         Availability

Cisco 7300 Series six-port        $30,000 U.S.    May 2002
 clear channel DS-3 line card

Cisco 7300 Series two-port        $17,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC-3c/STM-1 ATM line card

Cisco 7300 Series two-port        $13,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC-3c/STM-1 POS line card

Cisco 7300 Series one-port        $20,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC-12c/STM-4 POS line cards

Cisco 7300 Series two-port        $35,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC-12c/STM-4 POS line card

Cisco 7500 Series with RSP16      $20,000 U.S.    June 2002

Cisco 7500 Series with VIP6-80    $18,000 U.S.    June 2002

Cisco 7600 Series Channelized     $85,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC 12/STM-4 OSM

Cisco 7600 Series Channelized    $240,000 U.S.    May 2002
 OC 48/STM-16 OSM

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

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