Cisco Unveils Very Large Core Router Architecture

In a major new initiative for the company, Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday will debut a very large-scale core router that offers continuous operation and the ability to offer a variety of services that appear as if they are running on separate boxes.

The new 40gbps system is generally considered a move by Cisco to better compete against Juniper Networks, which two years ago came out with a modular core router that scales up to 10gbps. “Cisco understands they’re quite late to market with a core router,” says Karen Livoli, manager of the product marketing group at Juniper, whose core router is now in production networks with more than 60 customers.

The Cisco Carrier Routing System (Cisco CRS-1) is a multishelf solution that scales from 1.2tbps up to 92tbps, offers what Cisco says is the first OC768c packet interface and includes new operating system (OS) software called Cisco IOS XR that allows for maintenance and upgrades of the CRS-1 without service interruption. Related to the IOS XR is a service separation architecture built into the CRS-1 called the Cisco Intelligent ServiceFlex, which can separate traffic and network operations on a per-service basis.

“This OS is a new OS, and it’s highly modular in its approach,” says Tony Bates, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s routing technology group. “We now can modularize certain feature sets and also whole applications. You can have separate instances of whole applications running in one device.” It also enables “virtual routing”, meaning one box can appear to the network as separate boxes, he says. “Routers now will not be thought of as a single box, it will be a systems approach,” adds Bates. He explains that will be particularly useful for wholesale service providers.

Bates adds that service providers frequently become “prisoners of the unit of currency with which [they] connect.” Some service providers, he says, might have three to four nodes just for core routing because they interconnect at the lowest common denominator. “So it becomes very complex to manage,” he says. “By taking this systems approach, it looks and functions like one router. It has one Internet address; that is extremely significant. That’s a function of the system design and the distributed nature of the OS.”

The Cisco CRS-1 also has built-in features to prevent distributed-denial-of-service attacks.

It can be managed through command line interface enhancements, SNMP or XML-based interfaces. The new XML-based Craft Works Interface is a visual management tool that can manage single-shelf or multishelf systems.

The Cisco CRS-1 is currently in field trials with service providers worldwide and is scheduled to be available this July. The starting system list price is $450,000.

Juniper’s Livoli say Cisco’s OC768c interface “makes it an interesting announcement for them” but says she’s seen no interest among even the largest service providers in 40gbps core routing capacity. Junipers core router scales up to OC192/10gbps.

Livoli adds that since most large service providers need 12 to 18 months to approve new software before using it on a commercial basis, Cisco’s new OS keeps it at least a year away from providing the CRS-1 in production service provider networks.

“In a way Cisco validated the Juniper product” direction, says Livoli. “And we have a 3 to three and a half-year lead in the core.”

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