Cisco’s ASR Fuels Power Play at Network Edge

Looking to solidify its position at the network edge, Cisco Systems Inc. introduced what will become its new highest-end router line, which is powered by a super-fast chip it created at a cost of $100 million over four years.

The high-performance, low power consumption ASR-1000 line draws on the new QuantumFlow processor and includes functionality from separate session border controller, firewall, intrusion detection and switching boxes or blades in its core software

Though primarily targeted at enterprises, Cisco said the mega router can be used by service providers as well, noting that NTT in Japan and BT in the United Kingdom are among the first to use the compact (3.5-inches tall) unit, whose chip is expected to last 10-15 years.

“The ASR is equal in performance and scale to 160 Cisco 7200s,” said Ritch Dusome, director of product marketing for the vendor’s midrange business unit, in reference to the popular router (380,000 shipped to date) launched in 1995. “Since features are embedded in software, you can enable them with an ‘instant-on’ instead of having to schedule a truck roll to insert a special blade.”

Activity among the top router makers has been semi-frenzied of late with both Juniper Networks and Soapstone Networks (formerly Avici Systems) looking largely to evolve beyond a hardware first focus by productizing control plane features and functionality.

Cisco said the launch of the ASRs, which can be ordered now and ship next month, doesn’t mean curtains for the much older 7200s. “They’ll be around for the next two to three years and aren’t going anywhere,” said Dusome.

Other features embedded in software include deep packet inspection and broadband aggregation. The ASR line also boasts higher availability than predecessors – such as the 7200 – thanks to the instant-on feature activation capability, said Dusome.

One industry analyst believes Cisco’s top priority in using the chip is something other than top performance at the network edge.

“It’s not the place in the product line where a new chip with high performance would shine, and so it leads to a question of whether the new chip is more to reduce cost of the hardware and thus hold up the margins,” said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp. “But as the first application of the new chip it’s obviously interesting.”

Dusome noted that the same team that created the ASIC for Cisco’s CRS-1 core network router developed the QuantumFlow processor, which can handle a total of 160 processes at about a half a watt each.

Given this purported powerplant, the networking kingpin sees the first of the ASR line as a perfect system to deliver and support managed services to enterprises, focusing first on companies looking for T-3 to 10gig services and/or to build Layer 3 VPNs.

The ASR also has features such as multicasting that are needed to support video, whether it’s in the form of tele-presence applications or TV services.

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