4/20/2010 --

Cisco Systems Inc. made the case for its Carrier Routing System 1 (CRS-1) in part by producing lots of customer testimonials.

For several years after its introduction, CRS-1's success could be charted in terms of big customer wins, with industry watchers pronouncing this or that customer reference an important (or incremental, depending on the case) feather in CRS-1's cap.

Cisco last week announced that KPN, a telecommunications service provider based in the Netherlands, plans to roll out its IP next-generation network (NGN) on top of CRS-3. KPN cites exploding demand for video content and mobile services, and plans to roll out new (and bandwidth-hungry) online offerings as the impetus for its impending CRS-3 plunge. 

Cisco isn't expected to ship CRS-3 until early next year. When it ships, Cisco promises that CRS-3 will deliver three times the capacity of its flagship predecessor, which -- until rival Juniper Network unveiled its T1600 routing behemoth -- had bragging rights as both the largest and most scalable single-chassis routing system on the market. CRS-1, even in CRS-3's absence, is still the largest multi-chassis routing system on the market; it can expand to support up to 92 Tbps of incoming and outgoing traffic in a 72-way multi-chassis configuration. When it ships, the new CRS-3 will support more than 320 Tbps (incoming and outgoing) in a similar 72-way multi-chassis setup, officials said.

KPN joins Cisco's CRS-3 launch reference, AT&T Labs -- which tested CRS-3 in a 100 GigE field trial between New Orleans and Miami -- as big name service providers that have either endorsed or which (in KPN's case) plan to adopt CRS-3. In KPN's case, officials offered an enthusiastic (if speculative) endorsement of CRS-3's bona-fides. "Cisco has been a KPN supplier for many years. With this project, Cisco is working with us to anticipate the future of the Internet holds," said Eric Kuisch, general manager of networks and services, in a statement. "By choosing the Cisco CRS-3, we've boosted the capacity, increased the quality and prepared for future growth of our core IP next-generation network."
--By Stephen Swoyer