Cisco unveils multiyear plan for ‘building a new Internet’

28th February 2020 By: Schalk Burger - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Information, communication and networking equipment and software multinational Cisco’s long-term technology strategy is based on development and investments in the three key technology areas of silicon, optics and software for building a new Internet, Cisco chairperson and CEO Chuck Robbins says.

The company invested, over several years, in categories of independent technologies that it believes will converge in the future and will allow it to solve the most difficult problems that may erode the advancement of digital innovation, says Cisco Networking & Security Business executive VP and GM David Goeckeler.

“Building a new Internet that can support future digital innovation will depend on continued breakthroughs in silicon and optics technologies. Cisco has advanced intellectual property in these areas,” he avers.

Over the next decade, digital experiences will be created with advanced technologies: virtual and augmented reality, 16K-resolution streaming, artificial intelligence (AI), fifth-generation cellular telephony (5G), quantum computing, adaptive and predictive cybersecurity, intelligent Internet of Things (IoT), and others not yet invented, says Robbins.

These future generations of applications will drive complexity beyond the capabilities of current Internet infrastructure to viably support, he highlights.

Cisco’s strategy is delivering technology breakthroughs and paving the way for the world’s developers to create new applications and services.

The strategy is designed to push digital innovation beyond the performance, economic and power-consumption limitations of current infrastructure, he adds.

“We are dedicated to transforming the industry to build a new Internet for the 5G era. Cisco’s strategy will change the economics behind how the Internet will be built to support the demands of future digital applications and will enable customers to operate their businesses with simpler, more cost-effective networks,” notes Robbins.

The new Cisco Silicon One will be the foundation of Cisco’s routing portfolio, with near-term performance availability up to 25 terabits per second (Tbps). It is a unified, programmable silicon architecture.

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

“This is the industry’s first networking chip universally adaptable across service provider and Web-scale markets. It is designed for fixed and modular platforms and can manage the most

challenging requirements,” says Goeckeler.

Silicon One is the foundation of the company’s latest Cisco 8000 Series Platform that has been 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.

“Service providers gain more bandwidth scale and programmability to deliver terabits per second in even the most power- and space-constrained network locations, and the platform is optimised for 400 gigabits per second (Gbps) and beyond, starting at 10.8 Tbps in just a single rack unit.”

Cisco has also developed new flexible business model options that enable customers to consume innovations in ways that best fit their business needs, Goeckeler says.

Further, as port rates increase from 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps and beyond, optics become an increasingly larger portion of the cost to build and operate Internet infrastructure. Cisco is investing to ensure that optics will be available to support the increases in router and switch port rates that meet the industry’s most stringent reliability and quality standards.

“Customers can also use Cisco optics in applications where non-Cisco hosts have been deployed and the optics will meet reliability and quality standards,” he says.