1/21/2004 -- Cisco Systems Inc. this week unveiled new Metro Ethernet switches and touted additional Metro Ethernet-related enhancements to its existing products.

Cisco announced the Catalyst 3750 Metro Series, a new line of fixed configuration, customer-located switches. In addition, Cisco introduced a 48-port Mixed-Media Gigabit Ethernet module for its 7600 Series routers and Catalyst 6500 Series switches. Finally, the networking giant trumpeted several additional enhancements to its Catalyst 4500 Series switches.

Metro Ethernet is touted as an alternative to traditional Metro area networks -- which are typically based on private line, internet access, or transparent LAN networks -- that delivers flexible service scalability, economical scalability, lower operational costs and faster delivery. Proponents argue that Metro Ethernet infrastructures can deliver substantial savings over frame relay, private line and other traditional alternatives.

To that end, Cisco says that its new Catalyst 3750 Metro Series access switch will enable service providers to deliver Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs with service SLAs to their business customers. Cisco officials say that service SLAs are a significant improvement over the “best-effort” – i.e., best guess -- SLAs that preceded them. “A service-driven Metro network is one where the service provider carefully examines the breadth and depth of their current and future service portfolios before designing the infrastructure,” explained Larry Birenbaum, senior vice president and general manager for Cisco’s Ethernet Access Group, in an online Q&A that accompanied the announcement.

“In the past, service providers first built their network infrastructure based on a certain technology or set of point products and then considered what services could be deployed over that infrastructure,” Birenbaum said. “Providers are now examining their service offerings more carefully and are often finding that they need to build flexible architectures that use a range of technologies and intelligent features.”

Cisco also introduced the new 48-port Mixed-Media Gigabit Ethernet module for its 7600 Series and Catalyst 6500 Series products, which it says is designed for high-performance Metro deployments. The new Mixed-Media Gigabit Ethernet module features 48 Small Form-factor (SFP) optics and boasts 40-Gbps switch fabric connections and 9K Jumbo Frame size support. Cisco says that it’s upgradeable to Distributed Forwarding Capability (DFC3A). Last month, Cisco unveiled a new “Supervisor Engine” for its 7600 Series switches that first introduced support for high-density private lines and Metro Ethernet, along with acceleration for Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs.

Elsewhere, the networking giant touted new IOS features -- such as VLAN Translation and Class of Service (CoS) Mutation -- for its 7600 Series and Catalyst 6500 Series switches that it claims support the deployment of Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN service capabilities. VLAN Translation lets Layer 2 VPN subscribers use their existing VLAN tags, rather than tags issued by their service-providers, which Cisco claims facilitates access to services such as Internet access and IP VPN. CoS Mutation, on the other hand, lets service providers preserve end-user QoS across the service provider network.

Finally, Cisco announced new IOS 802.1Q tunneling capabilities for its Catalyst 4500 Series switches, which it says make it possible for service operators to use a single VLAN to preserve the multiple internal VLANs used by customers, even when they're transported across metro networks. -Stephen Swoyer