Cisco has introduced a new Internet data router that triples
the speed of its predecessor, the widely deployed Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing
System, as the company addresses customer demand for higher capacity to handle
the explosion in Internet traffic.
Cisco's new CRS-3 platform, which will ship later this year
at a starting price of $90,000, offers a throughput of up to 322 Terabits per
second. According to Cisco, that is fast enough to enable every man, woman and
child in China to simultaneously make a video call or for every motion picture
ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
Cisco, which is one of several IP communications vendors to
be featured in the "Destination Broadband" exhibit at the NAB show next month,
has for year emphasized the importance of video in transforming Internet
communications and driving global broadband traffic. At the CES show in
January, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers highlighted a range of Internet
video applications, from streaming user-generated video from Cisco's Flip
camera to high-definition videoconferencing using Cisco's "Telepresence" technology.
In announcing the CRS-3 Mar. 9 on a live video Webcast,
Chambers again cited new video applications, such as IPTV and 3D, as a big
driver of Internet growth going forward and as the impetus to create such a
robust routing platform like the CRS-3. The company has invested $1.6 billion
to date in its CRS product line, and almost 5,000 CRS-1 units have been
deployed.
"Video is not just the killer app, it enables new business
models," said Chambers. He predicted that within a few years, consumers will
use up to 15 terabytes of data per month, the equivalent of 3750 DVDs.
Telco AT&T has already tested the CRS-3 in a field trial
of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology, which took place in AT&T's live
network between New Orleans and Miami.
While AT&T was the first to move to 40-gigabit-per-second
backbones, said AT&T Labs President and CEO Keith Cambron, it expects it
will soon have to widely deploy 100-gig links to keep pace with network demand.
Overall network traffic is growing 40 to 50% annually, said Cambron, and video
is growing at a spectacular 80%.
Obviously, that video growth is music to Chambers' ears.
"I love anything that loads networks," he said.
