Cisco Systems Inc has launched what is claimed to be the first integrated Asynchronous Transfer Mode-Internet Protocol switching wide area system, representing the first fruits of its takeover of StrataCom Inc (CI No 2,907). The products are essentially enhancements to StrataCom wide area ATM switches designed to ease the scaling of the size and performance of the Internet and corporate intranets. New products include a family of intelligent Broadband Switching Modules for the StrataCom BPX/AX IS ATM system, enabling a four-fold improvement in performance and scalability, according to the company. They include a six-port and 12-port T3/E3 product, a four-port and eight-port OC-3/STM-1 module, and one-port and two-port OC-12/STM-4 module. They cost $4,000, $7,000 and $22,000 per port respectively, and will begin shipping by the end of the year. With these, says the company, a BPX can now support up to 8,000 ports. The company has also added Cisco Internetwork Operating System software to the BPX/AXIS for the support of Internet services and the Point-to-Point Protocol, and has also included Tag Switching support, to provide performance enhancements for IP and, in future, other frame-based protocols. The products are based on StrataCom’s ATM technology, Stratm. This consists of a set of application-specific integrated circuits for ATM switching and traffic management, and it is the foundation for the provision of Cisco Internetwork Operating System services on an end-to-end basis.
