Cisco Unveils High-End Multiprotocol Routers for Enterprise Networks

Strategic Insights -

Cisco Systems Monday announced the Cisco 7500 series, a new line of high-end multiprotocol routers that provide unparalleled stability, security, and control for large, evolving corporate networks. As part of this launch, the company also revealed major enhancements to its existing high-end routers in the Cisco 7000 family. The new Cisco 7500 router series extends the capabilities of the Cisco 7000 family, incorporating distributed switching functions that build on the company's CiscoFusion architecture. This new architecture enables the delivery of high-bandwidth applications and environments, supporting emerging technologies such as networked multimedia and ATM.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Cisco 7500 series significantly extends the capabilities of the Cisco 7000 family through increased performance, availability, and port density, expanding bandwidth capacity by four times.
  • The new routers provide redundancy for route/switch processing and increase maximum port density by 100 percent.
  • The Cisco 7500 series offers the industry's broadest support of high-speed ATM and WAN interfaces, allowing customers to access multiple types of carrier service offerings as they migrate from TDM backbones to ATM backbones.
  • The routers can strategically consolidate IBM data center communications when coupled with Cisco IOS software and the Cisco Channel Interface Processor (CIP), reducing costs and giving users more control over traffic to and from the mainframe.
  • The Cisco 7500 series will give Internet service providers the higher performance, reliability, and security they need to handle exponential growth and new applications, currently carrying more than 80 percent of Internet backbone traffic, according to the Yankee Group.
  • The new routers offer unequaled performance, with scalable system bandwidth exceeding two gigabits per second (Gbps), achieved through a new, distributed multiprocessor architecture consisting of three elements: the integrated Route/Switch Processor (RSP), the new Versatile Interface Processor (VIP) card, and Cisco's high-speed CyBus.

Statistics:

  • The Cisco 7500 series expands bandwidth capacity by four times compared to the Cisco 7000 family.
  • The new routers provide redundancy for route/switch processing and increase maximum port density by 100 percent.
  • The routers can support up to 2.1 Gbps of bandwidth, offering four times the capacity of the Cisco 7000's single CxBus (TM).
  • Each VIP card in a Cisco 7500 series router can make local switching decisions, based on routing information received from the RSP, and independently perform other Cisco IOS functions.
  • The Cisco 7500 Route/Switch Processor boosts performance of the route and switch processing functions by utilizing a high-speed RISC engine and custom ASICs.
  • The Cisco 7505 provides five chassis slots and 1 Gbps of bandwidth with one Route/Switch Processor (RSP) and one power supply.
  • The Cisco 7507 and Cisco 7513, with seven and 13 slots respectively, provide more than 2 Gbps of bandwidth and optionally can be equipped with dual RSPs and power supplies.

Sources:

  • Monday, September 4, 1995, Available at http://www2.infoseek.com or Microsoft Network http://www.msn.com
  • Cisco Systems, FMI: 408 982-4450 or 910 256 0336, e-mail: pub009@ix.netcom.com