Cisco preps for IMS

Cisco this week unveiled new and enhanced products to support converged cable, wireline and wireless applications, including those that comply with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture.

The products and product extensions are designed to enable providers to offer fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) services and to deliver application and subscriber-aware services, Cisco says. 

Cisco extended its support for Session Initiated Protocol (SIP)-based applications aligned with IMS with enhancements such as integration of a session border controller with its XR 12000 series router. The session border controller delivers integrated voice call signaling for both IMS and non-IMS applications.

This integration eliminates additional appliances and overlay networks, Cisco says.

A new product, the MGX 8880 Media Gateway, is designed to enable service providers to consolidate their infrastructures and deliver differentiated IP services through support for MPLS. Designed for both IMS and non-IMS applications, MGX 8880 is targeted at VoIP deployments and is PacketCable qualified, Cisco says.

Key product enhancements include support for the IMS Service Control Interface, which enables SIP-based applications such as dual-mode telephony, push-to-talk services, presence-based services and other fixed/mobile convergence applications.

Release 3.0 of Cisco’s Call Session Control Platform (CSCP) supports the IMS interface, as well as enhancements for scalability, provisioning, security and QoS policy enforcement.

Another enhanced product is Cisco’s Service Control Engine. The Service Control Engine performs deep packet inspection and application classification so service providers can offer application-and-subscriber-aware services.

Release 3.0 of the Service Control Engine provides monitoring of VoIP call quality in real-time and reports on individual subscriber experience on a per call basis. Additional enhancements include integration with third party anti-virus, security and intrusion detection appliances, and performance enhancements allowing the system to scale to support 10G bit/sec or greater throughput. 

Other enhancements include Release 9.7 of Cisco’s PGW2200 media gateway controller, which now supports IMS and more than 90 Signaling System 7 variants; and Release 4.5 of Cisco’s BTS 10200 softswitch, which offers new subscriber-focused features, and IMS integration. 

The session border controller with be available early next year. Pricing has not yet been determined.

Release 3.0 of the call session control platform is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

The MGX 8880 media gateway is available now. Pricing was not disclosed. 

Release 3.0 of the Service Control Engine is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

PGW2200 Release 9.7 will be available in the first quarter of 2006. Pricing was not disclosed.

BTS 10200, Release 4.5, is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

Separately, Cisco unveiled two new interfaces for the CRS-1 core router with integrated optical transponder functionality. The interfaces include a one-port 40G bit/sec tunable DWDM packet-over-SONET (POS) interface that is compatible with existing 10G bit/sec DWDM systems. The other is a four-port 10G bit/sec tunable DWDM PHY interface with SONET/SDH-like operations administration maintenance provisioning for compatibility with existing OSS systems.

The interfaces are intended to eliminate optical-electrical-optical conversions required with separate transponders by supporting integrated forward error correction. They are also compatible with the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform and designed to interoperate with installed DWDM infrastructure.

The CRS-1 also now supports a Cisco variant of the GMPLS signaling specification. Segmentation GMPLS supports autoconfiguration of wavelengths while keeping the topology of the routing domain isolated from the topology of the DWDM domains.

The enhancement to the CRS-1 are intended to enable providers to increase network bandwidth to support video and IPTV applications without taking up additional rack space with standalone network elements.

The one-port 40G bit/sec DWDM Packet-over-SONET (POS) interface costs $560,000. It will be available in the second quarter of 2006.

The four-port 10G bit/sec DWDM PHY module costs $250,000. It, too, will be available in the second quarter of 2006.