12/12/2006 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week unveiled new "Video 2.0" enhancements to its IP Next-Generation Network (NGN) product portfolio.

Cisco's Video 2.0 launch makes it easier for its IP NGN video infrastructure to support "on-demand-any-source-to-any-device" consumer and business collaborative capabilities, analysts say. "[T]he Video 2.0 announcement represents continued forward movement in [Cisco's] IP NGN portfolio capabilities to provide service providers with integrated support as they tackle the next wave of video-centric consumer and residential services," wrote Glen Hunt, a principal analyst for carrier infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.

Hunt credits the process by which Cisco has sedulously stitched NGN together from "discrete islands of functionality" into a flexible business- and consumer-grade system. "The Video 2.0 capabilities provide an integrated solution to deliver on the next wave of video services."

Elsewhere, Hunt lauds the 7600 edge router's new carrier Ethernet functionality (it includes 20 Gigabit line cards to both improve capacity and deliver line rate performance with QoS); enhanced VPLS support to provide greater scaling, endpoint auto discovery and pseudowire redundancy; integrated BRAS functionality (for example, support for PPPoE, PPPoEoA and DHCP sessions with integrated policy decision functions and application awareness); and integrated Session Border Controller (SBC) capabilities.

Negatives include the challenge of educating service providers about the benefits of transitioning more control and application-aware capabilities into the network -- at least versus the status quo, where service providers tap discrete components that reside outsider the network. Nor is that all.

"The addition of SBC and BRAS functionality into the 7600 adds additional complexity and configuration metrics on top of existing carrier Ethernet service delivery, making the use of Cisco’s lifecycle services a near must for many service providers," he concludes. --Stephen Swoyer