Looking to bolster technologies that support bandwidth-heavy applications, such as virtualization, collaboration, unified communications and video, LAN switching vendors are set to roll out a flurry of new products and enhancements, highlighted by Cisco’s new data center switch and Juniper’s expected rollout of edge, core and data center boxes. (Read the latest on Juniper's rollout.)

Slideshows: Cisco, Juniper lead switching splash

A supporting cast of switching vendors will unveil important upgrades, extensions and directions for their products, including Force10 and ConSentry Networks. Enterasys Networks is saving its latest product releases for next week with some 10 Gigabit Ethernet additions to its core and edge lines. 

The product rollouts are dominated by advances such as high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and service orientation. Indeed, PoE was a prime factor in the record growth Ethernet switching experienced in the third quarter of 2007, according to Dell'Oro Group.

PoE, however, is not part of the Cisco launch, which is focused squarely on the data center. The company’s new Nexus 7000 switch, developed under the code name DC3, features a unified switching fabric that combines Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities.

Nexus 7000 is the first in a new line of Cisco switching products optimized for high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the data center, and is perhaps Cisco's most significant product launch since the Carrier Routing System in 2004. Nexus required four years and 578 engineers to build, at a cost of $250 million, company officials say. It incorporates 1,513 Cisco patents, either issued or pending.  (Read more about Nexus here.)

“Cisco hasn't released a new switch in quite a while,” says Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group. “Instead of just building a bigger version of what's out there, they actually thought about what would [the virtualized] data center look like and what are the features of the switch that would have to be included to meet those needs.”

The Nexus 7000 is not the eventual successor to Cisco's Catalyst 6500 enterprise campus switch, company officials stress. The Catalyst 6500 has a road map that takes it to 2012, they say.

The Nexus 7000 includes 10-slot and 18-slot chassis that deliver up to 15 terabits per second of switching capacity and support up to 512 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The system is designed for future delivery of 40Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet as well, company officials say.