Cisco Wednesday introduced the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 1000 Series).
The ASR 100 Series features software virtualization to enable “instant-on” provisioning and simultaneous use of a wide range of service functionality, including firewall, IP security virtual private networks (IPSec VPNs), deep-packet inspection (DPI) and Session Border Control (SBC).
According to Cisco, such broad-ranging embedded capabilities eliminate the need to deploy multiple single-function appliances in addition to a router, offering dramatic savings in capital costs, operations expenses and reducing users’ carbon footprints.
“Next Generation Networks will enable a broad range of services in a wide variety of combinations, many requiring high-quality, high-definition, bidirectional communication to meet customer demands. In contrast to conventional best-effort approaches, we believe it will be necessary for the edge of network to perform dynamic quality control to flexibly and securely enable aggregation of traffic from broadband services and converged communications,” said Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), executive vice president, Shin Hashimoto.
“The Cisco ASR 1000 Series is expected to provide the functions essential for such IP NGNs in a flexible and scalable manner, with the high availability that we and our customers demand.”
The Cisco ASR 1000 Series is driven by the new Cisco QuantumFlow Processor (QFP), the industry’s first fully-integrated and programmable processing engine. The Quantum Flow Processor results not only outstanding scale of service intelligence and performance but also in the platform’s ability to be re-tasked to meet many emerging requirements as networking evolves over the coming decade.
In addition, The ASR 1000 Series features IOS XE software, a virtualized IOS implementation optimized for compact routers at the edge to deliver in-service software upgrades and software redundancy in a form factor much smaller than previously possible. In addition to the rich IOS edge feature set, IOS XE provides IOS command line control, to provide a familiar look and feel for IOS users.
Cisco invested USD 250 million over more than five years in the research and development of the Cisco ASR 1000 Series.
The Cisco ASR 1000 series will be generally available in April 2008 in 2, 4 and 6 rack unit sizes, with pricing starting at USD 35,000. |
