Menlo Park, California-based Cisco Systems Inc is to implement what it terms virtual interface software on its family of multiprotocol routers. According to the company, this will enable users to build arbitrary topology networks where each wide area network connection has its own security facilities, accounting capabilities and routing protocols, rather than having all circuits’ parameters dictated by the physical interface as is currently the case. The company says that virtual interface technology will enable each virtual connection across a public network, be it X25, Frame Relay, SMDS Switched MultiMegabit Data Service and Asynchronous Transfer Mode, to be treated as a dedicated link or part of a multidrop connection. Cisco will make two additional features available as part of its virtual interface programme: multiprotocol X.25 virtual circuits and multiprotocol inverse Address Resolution Protocol. According to the company, the former will take advantage of recent X25 standard modifications that allow multiple protocols to be supported over one circuit. This will reduce significantly the cost of operating international multiprotocol networks over X.25 public networks by enabling a single virtual circuit to support multiple protocols, says the company. Cisco estimates that the average corporation currently has between three and five protocols running, each requiring its own circuit. Multiprotocol inverse Address Resolution Protocol will reduce the configuration complexity of large multiprotocol Frame Relay networks by automatically mapping DLCI Data Link Connection Identifiers to the appropriate protocols, says the company. Virtual interface functionality will become a standard, no-extra charge feature of Cisco’s router software. It is available from this month for Cisco Frame Relay interfaces and in the second quarter for X25 and Asynchronous Transfer Mode products. Switched MultiMegabit Data Service support with multiple E.164 addressing is planned for later in the year. Upgrades will be free for those customers that have a maintenance agreement, and cost $500 to $1,000 for other users.
