Cisco Unveils Plan for Building Internet for the Next Decade of Digital Innovation

Cisco unveiled further details behind its technology strategy for building a new internet — one designed to push digital innovation beyond the performance, economic and power consumption limitations of current infrastructure.  A multi-year approach that is defining the Internet for decades to come, Cisco’s strategy is already delivering technology breakthroughs to pave the way for the world’s developers to create applications and services they have only begun to imagine.

Cisco introduced its latest innovation including Cisco Silicon One, one of the industry’s only networking silicon architecture of its kind; released the new Cisco 8000 Series, powerful carrier class routers built on the new silicon; and announced new purchasing options that enable customers to consume the company’s technology through disaggregated business models.

Building Blocks for the Internet for the Future

Cisco’s strategy is based on development and investments in three key technology areas: silicon, optics and software. 

Introducing Cisco Silicon One –Unified, Programmable Silicon Architecture

The new Cisco Silicon One will be the foundation of Cisco’s routing portfolio going forward, with expected near-term performance availability up to 25 Terabits per second (Tbps).  This is a networking chip designed to be universally adaptable across service provider and web-scale markets.  Designed for both fixed and modular platforms, it can manage challenging requirements in a way that’s never been done before.  The first Cisco Silicon One ‘Q100’ model surpasses the 10 Tbps routing milestone for network bandwidth without sacrificing programmability, buffering, power efficiency, scale or feature flexibility.

Traditionally, multiple types of silicon with different capabilities are used across a network and even within a single device.  Developing new features and testing can be lengthy and expensive. Unified and programmable silicon will allow for network operators to greatly reduce costs of operations and reduce time-to-value for new services.

Introducing: Cisco 8000 Series Platform Powered by Cisco Silicon One– Industry Leading Performance

The new Cisco 8000 series is the first platform built with Cisco Silicon One Q100.  It is engineered to help service providers and web-scale companies reduce the costs of building and operating mass-scale networks for the 5G, AI and IOT era.  Standout features include:

• Optimized for 400 Gbps and beyond, starting at 10.8 Tbps in just a single rack unit
• Powered by the new, cloud-enhanced Cisco IOS XR7 networking operating system software, designed to simplify operations and lower operational costs
• Offers enhanced cybersecurity with integrated trust technology for real-time insights into the trustworthiness of your critical infrastructure
• Service providers gain more bandwidth scale and programmability to deliver Tbps in even the most power and space constrained network locations

Global Customer Deployments and Trials

Cisco is working with a group of pioneering customers on deployments and trials of the Cisco 8000 Series.  STC, a leading telecom services provider in the Middle East, Northern Africa region, marks the first customer deploying the new technology.  Ongoing trials include Comcast and NTT Communications among others.

Optics for 400G and Beyond

Building a new internet that can support future digital innovation will depend on continued breakthroughs in silicon and optics technologies.  As port rates increase from 100G to 400G and beyond, optics become an increasingly larger portion of the cost to build and operate internet infrastructure. Cisco is investing organically to assure customers that as router and switch port rates continue to increase, optics will be designed to meet the industry’s stringent reliability and quality standards.

Through the company’s qualification program, Cisco will test its optics to comply with industry standards and operate in Cisco – and non-Cisco hosts. With this program, customers can utilize Cisco optics in applications where non-Cisco hosts have been deployed and have confidence that the optics will meet the reliability and quality standards that they have come to expect from Cisco. 

In addition, as silicon and silicon photonics advance, functions that were traditionally delivered in separate chassis-based solutions will soon be available in pluggable form factors.  This transition has significant potential benefits for network operators in terms of operational simplicity.  Cisco is investing in silicon photonics technologies to effect architectural transitions in datacenter networks and service provider networks that will drive down cost, reduce power and space, and simplify network operations.

Changing the Economics of the Internet with Flexible Business Models

Cisco also announced plans to offer flexible consumption models first established with Cisco’s Optics portfolio, followed by the disaggregation of the Cisco IOS XR7 software, and now including Cisco Silicon One.  This new model is highly adaptable and offers customers choice of components, white box, or integrated systems to build their networks.  This approach matches the evolving nature of operators selecting discrete or aggregated technology elements for their buildout and creates new economics of the Internet to provide significant business value.