2/16/2010 -- Earlier this month, Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled its Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 5000 series, a rebranded version of the ST40 from the former Starent Networks, which Cisco acquired for $3 billion last October.

Market watchers say the ASR 5000 is both run-of-the-mill and an important release for Cisco, which is banking on assets like Starent's ST40 to shore up its position in the mobile packet core. And even though the ASR 5000 doesn't bring much new to the table -- it is, for all intents and purposes, a straightforward rebranding of the ST40 -- analysts see it as an important deliverable for Cisco, which has moved to quickly integrate Starent's assets.

What's most interesting about the ASR 5000 launch, at least from the perspective of existing customers, is its new reporting and analysis tools, which come courtesy of Cisco's Mobility Unified Reporting System (MURS). Cisco pitches MURS as a means to help service providers both improve broadband mobile performance and deliver custom-tailored services to mobile users.

In other words, analysts say, it could be a boon to monetization.

But while that's doubtless important, the ASR 5000 doesn't offer much else to whet one's appetite. It's much more significant as a demonstration of Cisco's progress in digesting the assets of its $3 billion Starent acquisition.

"While the new traffic analytics tools should help with mobile broadband monetization, the big news is simply the rebranding of Starent's ST40 -- a move that loudly signals the quick integration of Starent into the Cisco fold and Cisco's tight focus on mobile broadband as a strategic opportunity," wrote Peter Jarich, an analyst with market watcher Current Analysis, in a recent research blast.

At the same time, Jarich is disappointed that Cisco hasn't shed more light about its post-integration coexistence strategy.

"Unfortunately, a lack of information about how the ASR 5000 will coexist alongside 7600-based gateway products and limited details on how Cisco views monetization beyond traffic reporting and management tools weakens the announcement," he said.

With respect to the significance of Cisco's first post-Starent deliverable, Jarich ultimately comes down on the important-but-underwhelming side of the fence.

"Having paid a hefty sum...for Starent, [Cisco] needed to show it was serious about executing on its assets to push into SP mobility and move quickly before competitors could build momentum...behind the new SGSN/GGSN and EPC offers," he wrote. "[T]he announcement does little more than reaffirm Cisco's focus on the mobile core as strategic," Jarich continued, adding, "To be fair, this is an important indication that the company is getting ready to compete more fiercely in the space and could be ready to quickly exploit its new Starent assets."

From a competitive perspective, Jarich concluded, the ASR 5000 launch was something of a non-event: "What it isn't, however, is an indication of much that competitors didn't already know -- beyond the new traffic tracking tools, the integration of the ST40 into Cisco's portfolio and the formation of the Cisco Mobile Internet Technology Group were all telegraphed earlier." --Stephen Swoyer