Cisco Introduces Innovations for Transport Network Modernization

Recently, at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference, Cisco announced innovations in its optical transport portfolio to address service providers’ challenges of migrating large volumes of profitable time-division multiplexing (TDM) services to an IP/MPLS infrastructure. Until today, migrating TDM to packets has been costly and has forced some service providers deploying older transport networks to change or re-engineer their network configuration. Now, Cisco’s cost-effective and scalable solutions can help service providers build a packet network of the future while still delivering their customers’ TDM services at a fraction of the cost.

Introducing today:

• Cisco® Network Convergence System (NCS) 4200 Series: Part of the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network (EPN), this transport system addresses network inefficiencies with high-density circuit emulation technology located at the network edge. It converts TDM services into pseudowires that facilitate transport over highly scalable MPLS core networks. With this technology, service providers can keep their existing operational models and service revenue while running all services over IP and retiring their older networks. Service providers can reduce space and power required over existing solutions by up to 90 percent.

• Increased density and flexibility for the Cisco NCS 4000 Series: New, multi-service, 100 percent pluggable, 400Gps line card that doubles slot bandwidth to 400Gbps, while providing port-by-port, pay-as-you-grow flexibility for OTN, Packet, MPLS and Coherent DWDM service. When deployed in the Cisco NCS 4009 and NCS 4016 platforms, chassis density doubles to 3.6Tbps and 6.4Tbps, respectively. The NCS 4000 Fabric is also enhanced to help enable unprecedented in-service scale from a single Cisco NCS 4000 chassis (6.4Tbps) to a Multi-Chassis solution capable of delivering over 100Tbps of capacity leveraging Cisco’s multi-chassis leadership.

• Increased density and flexibility for the Cisco NCS 2000 Series: New XPonder line card provides 400 Gbps of client and 400 Gbps of trunk capacity to Cisco’s widely deployed optical transport platform. The XPonder supports OTN, packet and coherent DWDM while contributing significantly to cost reduction – one line card for any mix of DWDM, gray, OTN and packet services.

Verizon, which is moving to a next-generation 100G metro network in the U.S., will deploy the Cisco NCS Series on portions of its 100G metro network.

“We are committed to offering service providers the technology to transform their network architectures and achieve the operational efficiency, scale, and reliability needed to succeed in the digital age,” said Bill Gartner, vice president of optical systems, access routing and transceivers group, Cisco. “We are confident that our new innovations in packet optical convergence will enable our customers to transform their networks today while positioning them to face the challenges and leverage the opportunities presented by a future dominated by the Internet of Things.”