Cisco at a crossroads as challenges mount.
Cisco is readying enhancements to its edge routers that are designed to help corporate and carrier customers support multiple services, such as Ethernet, frame relay, ATM and broadband aggregation, across a wider variety of platforms.
SAN JOSE – Cisco is readying enhancements to its edge routers that are designed to help corporate and carrier customers support multiple services, such as Ethernet, frame relay, ATM and broadband aggregation, across a wider variety of platforms.
The company says common software features traversing Cisco’s 7200, 7600, 10000 and 12000 lines will let users support services on routers with different configurations and densities instead of having to rely on a specific model for a specific service.
The upgrades, to be rolled out over the next nine months, come at a time when the 20-year-old company faces perhaps the greatest challenge yet to its foundation technology: routing. Cisco lost significant market share in carrier core routing in the third quarter even as it has attempted to navigate a profound product transition to its new top-of-the-line core carrier router, the CRS-1, and its new operating system. Meanwhile, Cisco is fighting off new or reinvigorated competition in the corporate and Asian markets from Juniper and Huawei Technologies.
“While Cisco is in this transition, they remain vulnerable,” says Mark Seery, an analyst at RHK. “There has never been a better time to attack Cisco, especially in the service provider market. However, if Cisco gets through this technology chasm, their position will be extremely strong.”
Cisco was stingy on details of the upcoming enhancements, discussed last week during the company’s annual analyst conference. But the 7200, which serves as a large branch office or corporate aggregator, will see IPSec VPN and other security extensions in a couple of software releases, says Mike Volpi, senior vice president in Cisco’s routing technology group.
The 7600, which is used in enterprise and carrier networks, will inherit the 7200’s VPN features and gain a smaller chassis for lower density requirements as well as software upgrades that will improve its high-availability features. Cisco also plans to increase the router’s performance and unveil line cards to enhance carrier edge capabilities.
Cisco is prepping a next generation of its 10000 series routers, which are used in carrier networks. Volpi says to expect enhanced broadband aggregation features and increased capacity. Cisco also will roll out software upgrades to provide a common release cycle to better align the router’s leased line and broadband aggregation features.
There had been speculation that Cisco-funded start-up BCN Systems was developing the next generation 7600 and 10000 series routers. All Volpi would say about BCN is that the company, which Cisco just acquired, is developing routing software.
Sources say BCN is developing software for a session controller blade for Cisco routers to link carrier VoIP networks.
The 12000 series, which had been Cisco’s highest-end core router until the CRS-1 began shipping in August, will see higher-performance line cards for edge duty. Cisco started positioning the 12000 for the carrier edge two years ago with the introduction of IP Services Engine cards.
Cisco will roll out a series of software releases for the 12000 line for multiservice edge capabilities, such as ATM/frame relay interworking, enhanced Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) edge features and new I/O cards with higher interface density. The 12000 is rumored to be the first non-CRS platform to inherit the IOS-XR operating system, Cisco’s new, modular operating system for carrier environments that require a high degree of reliability.
Volpi would not confirm this but did say that XR “favors a distributed system” architecture, like that found in the 12000.
That’s not to say that IOS is going away any time soon. Cisco continues to enhance IOS, specifically for the service provider market in the areas of high availability, MPLS edge extensions, in-service software upgrades and virtual private LAN services.
“We’re adding a lot of stuff to it because, especially at the edge, it’s going to be there for a while,” Volpi says.
So will assertions that Cisco is more vulnerable than ever now as it steers through this router transition. But Volpi sees Cisco’s current state as one of strength, not weakness.
“Clearly, in the core segment, we’ve given up market share – more than we’d like to,” he says. “At the same time, we feel like we have the right equipment now to go after and gain some of that share back.”
Volpi says Cisco can start winning back share in the second quarter of 2005 – around the same time Cisco’s switch fabric for clustering CRS-1 router chassis is set to ship. The fabric is now in trials at Deutsche Telekom.
Cisco says it has at least five CRS-1 customers, with about 14 more trialing the high-end product.
