* Cisco plans enhancements to 7200 series routers
In giving analysts a peek at what is planned from the company next year, Cisco says that it will add IPSec capabilities to its 7200 series routers.
These routers, typically deployed at the edge of service provider or large enterprise networks, already support a wide variety of services, including Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS).
The routers today can mark traffic with the tags that enable MPLS-based VPNs, making it possible for a single router to keep separate the traffic it handles from multiple VPNs. This feature can be used to secure traffic over IP networks to the same degree that traffic is protected by other Layer 2 technologies such as frame relay and ATM.
With the addition of support for IPSec, the routers will also be able to terminate VPN tunnels and switch the traffic from them across corporate and service provider MPLS networks.
For end users this means the possibility of using IPSec tunnels as a secure access method to an MPLS backbone. They will be able to build corporate networks that move traffic among sites that are tied to the backbone network via various access technologies including frame relay, ATM and soon IPSec connections.
This means that businesses with existing frame relay networks, for example, will be able to expand their nets by adding sites that are connected via IPSec, generally a less expensive option requiring no virtual circuits as does frame relay.
The new IPSec software as well as other security extensions will be part of several software releases coming next year, Cisco says.
