Cisco Upgrades 7600 Routers to Better Support Video

Cisco Systems announced this week at GLOBALCOMM that it added increased video support for it 7600 series routers, which are deployed in network operated by such providers as AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp., China Telecom, COLT, Cox Communications, neuf cegetel, Tata, Time Warner Telecom, Vodafone, Video Networks Limited.

The company has added a multicast connection admission control (CAC) capability to more efficiently deliver video services and an integrated video quality monitoring module to ensure higher quality. In addition, the 7600 series routers now include standards-based Ethernet OA&M capabilities for improved service assurance.

CAC is designed to deliver a high-quality user experience even when demand for video results in network oversubscription. “IPTV faces an oversubscription problem,” said Suraj Shetty, director of marketing, Service Provider Routing Technology Group at Cisco, describing a real-world scenario in which a video becomes popular. “If the network is designed to handle 1,000 simultaneous users, what about user 1,001?”

The new Cisco multicast and previously announced VoD CAC solutions distinguish among paid VoD, free VoD, specific high-demand broadcast channels and many other video deliverables, enabling providers to improve control of their resources and enhance the user experience.

In addition, the new video quality monitoring module monitors video streams in real time and sends proactive alerts to providers if picture quality is degraded, enabling them to determine the cause of the degradation and correct it before call centers are overwhelmed. This information is exported to a management tool, the Cisco Internet Solutions Center or other third-party tools.

The 7600 Series Routers also now support IEEE 802.1ag and IEEE 802.3ah OAM standards. IEEE 802.1ag offers end-to-end management while 802.3ah offers link-level management.

Cisco Systems Inc. www.cisco.com

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