3/24/2004 -- At last weeks CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany, Cisco Systems Inc. announced new density, ease-of-use and performance enhancements for its Catalyst Series switches.

The updates are designed to increase Ciscos ability to compete in the backbone switching and wiring closet markets, analysts say.

Cisco announced a new web-based management tool for the Catalyst 6500, a 48-port SFP fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet module, an enhancement to the Cisco Supervisor 720, a new 10-Slot chassis and Supervisor Engine for the Catalyst 4500, 10Gigabit Ethernet uplink capability for the Catalyst 3750 and new 10 Gigabit Ethernet XENPAK optics that support multi-mode and copper interfaces.

First, Cisco touted a new Catalyst-wide technology that it calls Smartports, which are said to simplify and accelerate the configuration of Catalyst Intelligent features, such as Quality of Service (QoS), security and availability. The networking giant also announced the availability of new integrated security features for its Catalyst Intelligent Switching platform. These capabilities include DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, and IP source guard, which can help prevent the theft of IP addresses.

In addition, Cisco announced software upgrades for four Catalyst 6500 service modules, including the Content Switching Module, the SSL Services Module, the IPSec VPN Services Module and the Network Analysis Module 1 and 2. The networking giant says that these upgrades enhance security, application awareness, and visibility of network traffic.

Cisco also announced CiscoView Device Manager (CVDM), a new embedded device manager that provides a web based, graphical user interface that facilitates the configuration and management of Catalyst 6500 and integrated services module.

In tandem with Ciscos new 48-port Gigabit Ethernet module, these enhancements to the Catalyst 6500 Integrated Service portfolio are said to enable greater throughput for high-density Gigabit aggregation and data center deployments. When the new Supervisor 720 field upgradeable PFC3BXL daughter card (which enhances security and increases performance for IPv4 and IPv6 routes) is thrown into the mix, Cisco claims to provide a solution that also extends the deployment of scalable, secure, and managed switch-integrated network services.

Elsewhere, Cisco announced that its Catalyst 4510R will support higher port densities of Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet in a single chassis. Its also delivering a new Supervisor Engine V a requirement for the Catalyst 4510R that increases the capacity and throughput of the Catalyst 4500 and supports new hardware-based features such as Broadcast and Multicast suppression, along with Q-in-Q encapsulation. Both the larger 10-slot chassis and Supervisor Engine V support all existing Catalyst 4500 line cards, Cisco says.

Cisco fleshed out its Catalyst 3750 switches with a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) uplink option. This means that the new Catalyst 3750 switch provides 16 10/100/1000 ports, along with one 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink. The new Catalyst 3750 can also be added to existing Catalyst 3750 stacks to facilitate access from all ports in the stack to the 0 GbE uplink.
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Finally, Cisco announced support for 10GBASE-CX4, 10 Gigabit Ethernet over Copper technology, and availability of 10GBASE-LX4 and 10GBASE-SR XENPAK Modules 10 Gigabit Ethernet over Multi-Mode-Fiber (MMF). Cisco claims that it wants to further spur adoption of 10 GbE in the enterprise and other environments, and says that the new XENPAK interfaces are supported on the 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports of the Catalyst 6500 and new Catalyst 3750.

Joel Conover, a principal analyst with consultancy Current Analysis Inc., says that the new capabilities that Cisco announced last week are impressive, but notes that theyll probably have only a moderate impact on the market. Why? Because, Conover notes, Cisco is already the leader in both backbone and wiring closet switching markets, and further improvements go toward defending its position as much as growing its share in the market.

At the same time, Conover acknowledges, Ciscos new Catalyst 3750 brings 10 GbE functionality to Ciscos wiring closet solution and also addresses competitive threats from Extreme and Foundry. In addition, he notes, Cisco has ratcheted up the pressure on Nortel to deliver a 10 GbE solution of its own. Similarly, the new high-density modules that Cisco announced for its Catalyst 6500 improve its competitive positioning against Extreme, Foundry and Force10, while Ciscos new Supervisor720-3BXL helps to better position it against carrier-class solutions in the enterprise market.

Nevertheless, Conover points to a couple of weaknesses in Ciscos Catalyst 4510R and Supervisor V enhancements. Though brand new and built for the Catalyst 4510R, the new Supervisor V engine introduces limitations on the tenth slot of the Catalyst 4510R chassis. The new chassis and Supervisor V supports 96 Gbps total, but unlike other slots in the system that support 12 Gbps, the tenth slot supports only 4 Gbps. This limitation is solely tied to the Supervisor V, but it is questionable why Cisco would choose to ship this brand new Supervisor, built for the Catalyst 4510R, without full bandwidth support on every chassis, he comments, noting that Cisco could still do more to enhance Catalyst manageability, as well. Ciscos management improvements simplify deployment and ongoing maintenance, but still fall short of the policy-driven management that some competitors tout. -Stephen Swoyer