With both end users and distribution source points becoming moving targets for video-heavy traffic, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) has upgraded its CRS-3 carrier routing switch to include label switching.
"It's not enough to deliver content faster and at higher capacity and lower cost-per-bit (because this) unfortunately ignores the most important part for the service provider which is to do it intelligently," Stephen Liu, senior manager of service provider routing and switching solutions for Cisco said during an interview with FierceCable.
In its initial iteration, the CRS-3 was concerned with intelligently and efficiently routing traffic across the network to an end device in the home. The latest version takes into effect that mobile users are being more efficiently serviced by data centers that are themselves becoming moving targets.
"Data centers in content and services are being distributed and virtualized. Instead of what was served from a single source, centralized location data center is now coming from national or regional data centers that are being distributed closer to the user," Liu said.
This, he said, means data "on-ramps and off-ramps are huge now. You don't just get on and off at the home, you get on and off at your mobile device, your iPad, your WiFi. That multi-directional nature requires innovations in the CRS," he said.
Label switching isn't new but "the CRS gains a new packet processing engine that is optimized to transport large volumes of data and an increased number of data flows at lower costs," said Glen Hunt, principal analyst, transport and routing for Current Analysis. "Cisco's (upgrade) is in direct response to the need to more cost-effectively transport greater volumes of packet-based traffic across the IP core network, a need driven by massive increases in the amount of video, mobile and cloud traffic and the extension in the number of subscribers or device such as tablets and smartphones."
For more:
- see this news release
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