Cisco, Juniper Claim Big Advances In Core Routers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. have claimed simultaneous advances for their core router systems. Comcast Corp. (Philadelphia) will use the CRS-1 core router, announced by Cisco (San Jose) last year, as its national delivery platform for broadband data, video, and voice services. Meanwhile, MCI Inc. has demonstrated the 40-Gbit upgrade to Juniper Networks Inc.’s T-series routers with OC-768c modules.

Comcast, with over 21 million customers in 35 states, will use the CRS-1 in its mission-critical backbone, which is based on Internet Protocol and is being upgraded for support of IPv6 and advanced multicasting. Cisco is not specifying the amount of the contract because Comcast has not defined the full extent of the CRS-1 use in the network, but a redundant network aggregating nationwide cable headends could amount to tens of millions of dollars, according to one insider.

Juniper (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced that MCI has completed demonstration tests of a 40-Gbit interface module for the T-series routers. The 40-Gbit interfaces are used in conjunction with the Matrix distributed router technology to create a backbone for support of IP/Multi-Protocol Label Switching, and advanced multicasting for IPTV.