Addressing the rapid growth in metropolitan area networking, Cisco Systems, Inc. announced the Cisco ONS 15540 Extended Services Platform (ESP), a high-end metro DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) system designed for enterprise and service provider networks. The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP is a modular, scalable, and service-dense DWDM system that can deliver the integration of data and storage networking and information streaming over an ultra-high bandwidth optical infrastructure, capable of supporting any packet on any wavelength from any platform.
The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP is available for the expanding Cisco IP+Optical portfolio. Combined with Cisco's existing metro optical transport and DWDM platforms, Cisco now offers a comprehensive set of metro optical solutions for virtually any networking application at any price point.
Cisco cites a study by RHK, a telecommunications industry analysis firm, which explained that the potential market for metro optical storage and data transport technology vendors in North America alone is expected to grow to nearly $3.6 billion by 2004. A few key market drivers in both enterprise and service provider environments are fueling this growth. Demand for high-capacity storage networking solutions and the need to cost-effectively extend their Gigabit Ethernet traffic into the metro are two important factors. For service providers, rapid provisioning of new services over wavelengths for greater revenue per optical fiber, and the need to offer service level agreement (SLA) guarantees on those services are contributing to the demand.
With the goal of building the next-generation metropolitan area network, Cisco designed the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP as a fully modular and scalable system with unparalleled service density, able to handle new applications and constantly increasing network demands as needed. The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP will roll out in multiple phases, with future releases expected to offer such powerful features as multiplexing mixed services on a single wavelength, switching at the lambda or sub-lambda level, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OC-192c support.
Customers can take advantage of the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP's high-capacity, versatility, high-availability, and extensive management features. The initial phase of the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP supports up to 32 protected lambdas (or wavelengths) per fiber pair, operating at variable speeds from 16 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps, for a total capacity up to 80 Gbps per system. Additionally, since these lambdas are at ITU 100 GHz spacing, all 32 wavelengths reside in the C-band making optical amplification a simple task. The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP contains 12-slots packaged in a compact (24-inches tall), NEBS-3 compliant, and rack-mountable chassis. This gives customers the ability to stack multiple Cisco ONS 15540 ESPs per rack, for a pound-for-pound metro DWDM networking capability bar none.
The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP supports a number of networking and storage protocols including Gigabit Ethernet, ESCON, FICON, Fibre Channel, and SONET, all initially running over transparent mode. It supports a flexible array of DWDM networking architectures, specifically point-to-point, hub-ring, and mesh-ring networks. For additional configuration options, customers can use the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP's Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (OADM) modules to add or drop multiples of 4, 8, or 16 lambdas at a time on their networks.
The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP also features three protection options: at the port-level on the client equipment, at the transponder-level on the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP, and at the fiber-level using the new Cisco optical splitter-based protection. This gives the system greater than 99.999 percent availability.
For management, the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP offers an additional, dedicated lambda, called the Optical Supervisory Channel, which provides a variety of performance monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for each fiber the system uses. The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP will provide end-to-end management capability on a per-lambda basis. Additionally, the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP is fully integrated into CiscoView, a Web-based version of Cisco's popular graphical device management application. For service providers, the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP will be integrated with the Cisco Transport Manager (CTM), which extends across other Cisco ONS platforms.
Cisco is working with EMC Corporation to ensure tested-interoperability with EMC's end-to-end high availability storage solutions such as Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) applications. Cisco has also established a relationship with IBM to complete interoperability testing with IBM's high availability solutions for e-business.
Cisco is also working with Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN), a provider of optical IP Internet infrastructure within key metropolitan areas domestically and internationally, to qualify the Cisco ONS 15540 ESP. Upon qualification, MFN will be able to offer its customers a host of optical networking services in a variety of configurations via its WaveChannel Optical Network metro DWDM solution. Cisco is also working with AT&T Solutions, the networking professional services arm of AT&T, to qualify the Cisco ONS 15540 as ready-to-deploy in its Ultravailable Solutions for storage area networking and broadband networking.
The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP is expected to be available early next month. The list price of a base system starts at $67,000 and varies in price according to the number of client and DWDM interfaces the customer chooses. The Cisco ONS 15540 ESP will be featured as part of a live demo that includes Brocade, EMC, IBM, and other Cisco equipment at Networld+Interop, May 8-10 in Las Vegas. The demo will be located in the Cisco booth (No. 5063).
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Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) is a provider of networking for the Internet. For more information, visit www.cisco.com.