Cisco WAN switch blends data, voice and video

San Jose, Calif.

Cisco Systems last week unveiled an enterprise WAN switch that lets users integrate data, voice and video over a single network and migrate to next-generation IP-based applications.

The IGX 8450 connects enterprise LANs, legacy data, PBXs and video equipment to private WAN links. The new device enables users to build private multiservice networks that also provide access to public WAN services.

The IGX 8450 is a 16-slot chassis with two cell backplanes. The chassis holds any mix of ATM, frame relay, Synchronous Data Link Control, High-Level Data Link Control, voice and LAN interfaces, and leased-line and public trunking interfaces.

The IGX 8450 is the first Cisco 8400 series WAN switch to include Cisco's Internetwork Operating System routing software. This enables the switch to perform software-based routing for IP applications, such as voice- and fax-over-IP. The IGX 8450 also uses Cisco's Tag Switching to deliver IP quality of service (QoS) in an ATM multiservice backbone.

"The main thing is that Cisco's finally delivering on its Tag Switching across the backbone," says Bob Bellman, president of Brooktrail Research in Natick, Mass. "Putting Tag Switching into the ATM switches should result in some payoffs in terms of QoS and traffic engineering."

A potential downside to the IGX 8450 is that users now have to pay more for a Cisco enterprise WAN switch because they are buying a router as well as an ATM switch, Bellman says.

Indeed, Cisco is also adding IP routing and Tag Switching to the rest of the IGX 8400 line. This "service expansion shelf" enables users of switches in that line to add ATM-like QoS capabilities to IP traffic as needed.

The new device's ATM modules support up to eight T-1s and four OC-3s. Frame relay modules sport up to 12 V.35 or X.21 interfaces, and LAN cards support four 10Base-T interfaces, or one 100Base-T or FDDI interface. Voice modules handle up to eight T-1s and 32K bit/sec of compression.

The IGX 8450 will be available in the fourth quarter at a list price of $22,000. The service expansion shelf for existing 8400 switches will be available in the first quarter of 1999 at a base price of $15,000.

Cisco: (408) 526-4000