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Cisco Boosts IP Next-Generation Network Carrier Ethernet Design to Enable the Connected Life
New Capabilities Enable SONET/SDH-Like Service Level Agreements to Help Ensure Customer Satisfaction
| Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - September 24, 2007) - Cisco® (NASDAQ : CSCO ) today announced the
Cisco ME 3400-24FS, an enhancement to the Carrier Ethernet portfolio of its
IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture. The ME 3400 Series is
designed to enable operators to deliver the "Connected Life," extending
fiber-to-the-home apartment buildings and other multi-tenant units,
allowing deployment of more services more quickly -- with lower operational
expenses and faster time-to-market. Cisco also announced enhancements to
its IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design. These innovations are designed to
enable extension of 50-millisecond (ms) resiliency from core to premise,
increase scalability and resiliency, and provide new instrumentation for
measuring customer service-level agreements (SLAs).
"With the target to cover two million households for triple-play services
on our Carrier Ethernet network, quality of experience is of utmost
importance. Given the growth of traffic and subscribers, working to ensure
it is an ongoing challenge," said Ricky Wong, chairman of HKBN. "These new
innovations from Cisco will allow us to build on the capabilities of our
existing network to help ensure that we are able to serve our customers'
needs now and well into the future."
NEW ME 3400-24FS -- Extending Ethernet Fiber to the Home
The Cisco ME 3400-24FS Series switch is a cost-optimized platform with a
smaller form factor to deliver fiber-based networks to residents of
multi-tenant units (MTUs). Its higher density is ideal for building
basements and it enables pay-as-you-grow capabilities for low-population
areas. It also features extended in-building reach with new flexible port
options including fiber and copper and greater visibility and control of
bandwidth for customized service bundles. Using the ME 3400, providers are
able to offer pinpoint troubleshooting, delay-free access to personalized
content and advanced entertainment service delivery unrestrained by
distance.
New SONET/SDH-type Service-Level Agreement (SLA) Capabilities for Carrier
Ethernet Design
50ms Resiliency from Core to Premise
Cisco has further enhanced the IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design to bring
SONET/SDH service level agreements (SLAs) to Ethernet, announcing
enhancements designed to enable extension of 50ms recovery from the core to
the customer. This network resiliency is supported in mesh or ring
topologies and is applicable across the Cisco Carrier Ethernet portfolio
with a simple software upgrade.
Enhancing Operations, Administration and Management (OAM) and IP
Service-Level Agreement (SLA) with New Embedded Event Manager (EEM)
Complementing the comprehensive MPLS OAM, Ethernet OAM and Ethernet/IP SLA
agent software on Cisco Carrier Ethernet platforms, Cisco also introduced
the Embedded Event Manager (EEM) to automate proactive network
troubleshooting of Carrier Ethernet deployments. This software enhancement
enables providers to have the network self-monitor and self-correct in
order to improve quality of the customer experience, reduce service outages
and resolve issues faster, while giving them visibility to the business
impact of network outages.
Enhancing Video Quality with IPTV SLA
Cisco also today announced IPTV SLA, providing new levels of visibility for
video traversing Ethernet networks via IP multicast. The IPTV SLA software
solution enables providers to look inside a MPEG packet to determine if a
video problem is due to video encoding or a network transmission issue.
Using IPTV SLA, providers can immediately identify the exact channels and
multicast groups affected, as well as the problem location in the network
and number of subscribers impacted. This enables providers to quickly
correct video problems with the objective of reducing customer calls into
the provider call center.
EANTC Carrier Ethernet Architecture Validation for IPTV
A recent test from independent laboratory European Advanced Networking Test Center AG (EANTC) validates the scalability
of the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design and Cisco Video Quality
Experience (VQE) technology. The scalability test loaded the Carrier
Ethernet network with one million emulated subscribers, 200
standard-definition channels, 20 high-definition channels and showed
excellent performance and rapid network failure recovery. The test for VQE
focused on video error repair resulting in perfect and consistent video
quality even with 10 percent packet loss. This is a tenfold improvement
over DSL alone. As the test notes, "The solution was impressive and its
usage well
thought-out. VQE considered both the user's immediate needs for a good
quality of service and the service provider's need to maintain statistics
on the QOS provided to the users. It was most certainly not planned this
way, but this final test showed how a true end-to-end solution should
function -- all the way from the service source to the subscriber at home."
A full copy of the report is available from Cisco at
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns610/networking_solutions_solution_category.html.
Frost & Sullivan Award
Frost & Sullivan, a world leader in growth consulting and the integrated
areas of technology research, market research, economic research, corporate
best practices, training, customer research, competitive intelligence and
corporate strategy, recently gave Cisco the Frost & Sullivan Global Carrier
Ethernet Equipment Market Leadership of the Year Award.
"The innovations announced today address a number of outstanding issues for
the industry," said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president of service provider
technology group for Cisco. "We are pleased to continue working with the
world's leading providers to enable them to develop and deliver
increasingly advanced triple-play services to growing subscriber bases,
while maintaining the quality of experience that both they and their
customers have come to expect."
For more information, please visit the Cisco Website:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns577/networking_solutions_solution.html
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