9/11/2006 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week announced its CRS-1 four-slot IP core router, a diminutive unit that's said to boast all the capabilities of its brawnier -- or, at any rate, bigger -- eight-slot, 16-slot or multichassis CRS-1 systems.

It's a significant deliverable for Cisco, industry watchers say, in large part because it marks the networking giant's most significant effort to date to bring its next-gen CRS-1 technology down from the mountain and into the hands of ordinary users. "[The] CRS-1 four-slot IP core router...extends the reach of [Cisco's] core solution closer to business and residential consumers to handle the convergence of voice, video, data and mobility services," writes Glen Hunt, a principal analyst for carrier infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis. "The new platform can address the needs of regional Points of Presence [PoPs], MSO hub locations and data center peering sites, where a 320GB/40GB-per-slot capability is needed but the density requirements are much less than those provided by the larger 8/16 slot models."

For example, Hunt points out, current CRS-1 customers such as Sprint and National LambdaRail are evaluating the four-slot edition for deployment in their core networks. Others will surely follow, he argues.

"It extends the platform's 40GB-per-slot capabilities closer to the consumer, offering all of the features of the larger CRS-1 such as a multistage switch fabric, which supports multicast and QoS," Hunt writes. -Stephen Swoyer