Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the modular Catalyst 8510 and Catalyst 8540 Multiservice ATM switch router (MSR) series for enterprise networks. These new multiservice ATM solutions enable customers to scale their campus backbones whether they are using ATM, Ethernet or a mixture of both. The new Catalyst 8510 MSR and Catalyst 8540 MSR platforms offer advanced quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities, voice and video support and the ability to integrate routed and switched 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single platform. Both series support high-density OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 ATM switching. The Catalyst 8500 MSR series implements Cisco IOS software to provide a variety of network services including reliability, security, management, a full suite of routing protocols and the latest ATM Forum specifications like Hierarchical PNNI and Tag Switching (IETF Multiprotocol Label Switching), with additional support for CiscoAssure Policy Networking. The Catalyst 8500 series supports all the routing protocols that are used today in both the campus and the Internet. "Some vendors are focusing on switching capacity alone, but that`s only part of the equation," said Michel Agopian, European Enterprise Solutions Marketing Manager for Cisco Systems. "Users need to look beyond wire speed performance for excellent resiliency, security and management features." Enhanced Scalability, Investment Protection and Reliability The Catalyst 8510 MSR provides an aggregate throughput of 6 million packets per second (pps) for both ATM and Layer 3 switching and supports up to 32 fully routed 10/100 ports, up to 32 ports of OC-3 (155 Mbps), up to 8 ports of OC-12 (622 Mbps) and supports the wide variety of ATM port modules already available for Cisco`s LightStream 1010 ATM switch. The Catalyst 8540 MSR scales multiservice networks by enabling nonblocking switching at up OC-48 (2.4 Gbps) rates, with an aggregate throughput of 24 million pps. The Catalyst 8540 supports up to 128 fully routed 10/100 ports, up to 16 fully routed Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to 128 ports of OC-3 ATM, up to 32 ports of OC-12 ATM or up to eight OC-48 ATM ports, as well as the LightStream 1010 port modules already available. For investment protection, the Catalyst 8510 MSR and Catalyst 8540 MSR can integrate LightStream 1010 port modules and the routed 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet line cards from the frame-only based Catalyst 8500 campus switch router (CSR) series (see announcement on April 27, 1998). Additionally, Cisco has ensured that the Catalyst 8510 MSR line cards maintain their compatibility with the Catalyst 5500 multilayer switch and can be deployed in any of its lower five slots. Now, customers can build high-performance backbones with one consistent platform, deploying either a frame-only switching fabric (CSR configuration) or the integrated cell/frame switching fabric (MSR configuration) while using the same chassis, power supplies and line cards. Versatility The versatility of the Catalyst 8500 MSR switching fabric is enabled by its ability to queue and schedule both cells and frames, allowing ATM and Ethernet as well as Packet-over-SONET switching to be integrated in one platform. Even over ATM interfaces, all the cells carrying frame-based traffic can be queued and scheduled like frames, delivering the appropriate QoS capabilities to those applications like Cisco switch routers do, yet have all the versatility and performance of a multiservice ATM switch router. Conversely, voice traffic can be queued and scheduled with equal guaranteed bit rate service whether it is being transported by voice-over-ATM or voice-over-IP protocols. Multiple MPOA clients on Catalyst 5000 series switches or departmental LightStream1010s can deliver OC-12 (622 Mbps) connections into Catalyst 8540s in the core, which will then aggregate that traffic into OC-48 interconnects, thus quadrupling the bandwidth of a typical enterprise ATM backbone. The Catalyst 8540 also works in conjunction with the LightStream1010 ATM switch, Cisco 7200 routers, Cisco MC3810 multiservice access concentrator, and Cisco IGX(TM) 8400 series wide-area switches to seamlessly deliver voice and video traffic over the enterprise metropolitan- or wide-area network. Catalyst 8500 Series Quality of Service and Policy Networking with CiscoAssure With the number of applications rising on the network and traffic continually increasing, IT professionals must intelligently control this resource. Leveraging the intelligence within the network, CiscoAssure Policy Networking enables MIS to tie users, applications and business requirements together for effective and efficient connectivity. A variety of CiscoAssure policy networking options on the Catalyst 8500 series bring application-aware network services to the enterprise. These include advanced QoS capabilities, management features, security and policy-setting capabilities. The Catalyst 8500 MSR series offers rich QoS capabilities that enables network administrators to protect mission-critical applications from other traffic. The MSR can provide queues to an individual flow or class of flows resulting in the preservation of QoS despite any congestion that may arise. Thus network administrators can determine which traffic gets priority in the event of congestion. The shared-memory architecture dynamically allocates memory buffer to queued cells and/or frames as needed, which helps protect bursty data traffic against loss in typical client/server environments. Network Visibility and Control Advanced ATM management functions in the Catalyst 8500 MSR allows for high levels of network visibility and control. This includes support for two key specifications: ATM RMON MIB and ATM Accounting MIBs. The Catalyst 8540 can be controlled and managed by AtmDirector(TM), Cisco View and CiscoWorks for Switched Internetworks management applications.
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