Network Intelligence Innovations Establish Cisco 7600 Series as Leading Carrier Ethernet Service Edge Platform for Any-Play Services Over IP Next-Generation Networks

HONG KONG--(CCNMatthews - December 03, 2006) - ITU TELECOM WORLD -- Cisco(R) (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced significant enhancements to the Cisco 7600 Series Router portfolio that establish it as the industry's first comprehensive Carrier Ethernet service edge platform for converged Internet Protocol (IP) video, voice and data offerings with mobility (any-play). This includes support for the Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) -- announced earlier this year on the Cisco 10000 and 7200 Series platforms -- which provides policy control, service control and subscriber management. Further enhancements include the integration of Session Border Control (SBC) functionality for IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and non-IMS voice applications. "Broadband in both wireline and wireless is set to be the next big revolution in India and Bharti Airtel wants to be a key enabler of it," said T.V. Sriram, Head Technology, Bharti Airtel Ltd. "Our Carrier Ethernet network, based on Cisco's 7600 series routers, ME 6524 Series Ethernet switches and IP Solution Center, is the most advanced and the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region. This technology from Cisco will allow Bharti Airtel to backhaul ADSL and wireless broadband networks to deliver services such as high speed Internet, VoIP, IPTV and VoD for residential customers as well as MPLS VPN, Ethernet leased lines and video collaboration services for enterprise customers." The Cisco 7600 Series is designed to offer service providers a highly-configurable router with a suite of line-card options that can be tailored to support a variety of Carrier Ethernet IP services, reducing costly upgrades and offering unsurpassed investment protection. With more than 35,000 units in production, this flexible design concept has proven itself in global provider networks. "We partnered with Cisco to build a high-quality, fully-scalable, state-of-the-art Metro Ethernet IP NGN based the Cisco 7600 Series Routing platform to be able to offer voice, high definition video and data," said M.A. Madhusudan, chief operating officer, Tata. "This integrates into our QoS-enabled MPLS network which spans 140 cites and eight countries enabling us to offer uniquely differentiated services with high reliability." These enhancements establish the 7600 Series as the first Carrier Ethernet service edge platform for any-play consumer services over converged Carrier Ethernet networks and include: -- Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG), Enabling Broadband Aggregation for Data Service Convergence The Cisco 7600 Series enables subscriber-awareness with broadband aggregation for as many as 64,000 PPPoE, PPPoEoA, IP and DHCP sessions, enabling providers to deploy the next generation of high-performance entertainment, communications and broadband applications with a common subscriber management model over Carrier Ethernet. The Cisco ISG and the Cisco Service Control Engine negotiate policy decisions directly via use of a common Cisco control plane technology, optimizing application-aware policy enforcement. The Cisco Broadband Aggregation/ISG portfolio also includes the highly flexible Cisco 7200/7300 Series and the high-performance Cisco 10000 Series Routers. -- Integrated Cisco Session Border Control (SBC), Enabling IMS and Non-IMS Voice Service Convergence Integrated SBC on Cisco 7600 Series Routers provides per-session control and management of IP multimedia traffic based on widely-used protocols such as SIP and H.323 for signaling interoperability. This unified SBC implementation eliminates additional appliances and overlay networks, enabling multi-service scalability with easy operation and lower costs. It also builds on Layer 2 and Layer 3 services and provides a flexible and open architecture for consumer services. The Cisco SBC is also integrated with the Cisco XR 12000 Multiservice Edge platform for business services. -- Cisco Visual Quality Experience (VQE) Technology Enhances IPTV Service Convergence Cisco VQE technology enables providers to prepare networks for advanced video services such as IPTV by detecting and repairing packet loss on degraded copper lines. It further enables network-based rapid channel change to enhance the viewing experience for IPTV subscribers. VQE will initially ship as an appliance and will soon be integrated into Cisco 7600 Series Routers. These enhancements build upon existing video service capabilities in the 7600 Series that include dynamic multicast quality-of-service (QoS), video connection admission control and video quality monitoring. -- WiFi and Mobile Aggregation for Mobility Service Convergence The recent addition of integrated mesh Wi-Fi support to the 7600 Series enables multi-network service delivery, allowing providers to offer any service to any device. The Cisco 7600 also supports PDSN/GGSN integration. -- Performance Enhancements Two new 20 gigabit-per-second (Gbps), full-duplex line-card options are also being offered in a 2-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 20-port Gigabit Ethernet configurations, with as much as 30 megabits per second (Mbps) distributed performance per line card. A recent test conducted by an independent laboratory at Isocore validated the carrier-class scalability, flexibility, reliability and QoS capabilities of the Cisco 7600 Series platform, showing the Cisco 7600 Series to be one of the industry's leading edge-routing platforms, enabling the development of advanced IP/MPLS services such as the deployment of Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs on a single converged Ethernet network for reduced complexity and lower total cost of ownership. "Today's data, voice and video consumers demand a unified, personalized, high-performance experience at home, at work and on the move," said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president of Cisco's service provider routing and technology group. "However, meeting these demands can be costly. Integrated service delivery requires network infrastructure that converges previously disparate functions and reduces operational costs." For more information about how Cisco is enabling providers and their customers to benefit from the shift to "Video 2.0," please visit the Cisco Website: http://www.cisco.com/go/ipngn7. About Cisco Systems Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information. 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Contact Information: Press Contact: Wilson Craig Cisco 408 525-2524 wicraig@cisco.com or Investor Relations Contact: Andreas Goldau Cisco +44 20 8824 8209 agoldau@cisco.com or Industry Analyst Contact: Carter Cromwell Cisco 408 526-6914 ccromwel@cisco.com