Cisco launches new ASR router in Australia

Kevin Bloch, director Technology and Business Solutions for Cisco, said the ASR represents a new paradigm in routing technology.

“We believe this is a category killer,” he said. “It’s a brand new routing platform for Cisco.”

Developed at a cost in excess of a quarter-billion dollars US, the ASR sits at the edge of the network, acting as an entry point into an enterprise or service provider core network. Cisco’s Sydney-based engineer team worked on development of the ASR in collaboration with seven teams across the globe. The ASR is able to provide up to 10 gigabits per second line speed, with the capacity to go beyond 40 gigabits, claimed the vendor. According to Cisco, the key to the ASR’s new functionality is the newly developed QuantumFlow Processor.

Cisco stated the QuantumFlow Processor features an integrated and programmable chipset offering session border control, quality of service, multi-gigabit encryption, network based application recognition and deep-packet inspection. The integration of this functionality cuts down on the number of appliances needed to provide network functions, which may be bad news for providers and resellers of function-specific hardware.

The ASR 1000 has been designed to fit between the 7300 and 7600 series. Bloch claimed the ASR will fill a space in the market rather than phase out existing models.

“We’ve already got a lot of routers and switches that provide some of this functionality. We’re not going to end of life that tomorrow either. There’s still plenty of life in our 7000 series… all we’re doing is building out the gaps.”

Bloch went on to say that increasing video content, Web 2.0 collaboration, emerging services and cost efficiencies are driving change at the edge of the network. He said Cisco expects to sell hundreds of ASR 1000 units within the first two years of launching to customers including ISPs, telecommunications providers and high-end corporate and government enterprises.

“A lot of enterprises today actually look like telcos of yesteryear. They’re having to support massive amounts of bandwidth,” he said.

The channel will have access to the ASR 1000 from mid-April.