Cisco unveils next Internet core router

IDG News Service - Cisco Systems today introduced its next-generation Internet core router, the CRS-3, with about three times the capacity of its current platform.

"The Internet will scale faster than any of us anticipate," Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said during a webcast announcing the product.

At full scale, the CRS-3 has a capacity of 322Tbit/sec., roughly three times that of the CRS-1, which was introduced in 2004. It also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor, Chambers said.

The CRS-3 will help the Internet evolve from a messaging to an entertainment and media platform, with video emerging as the "killer app," Chambers said.

Using a CRS-3, every person in China, which has a population just over 1.3 billion, could participate in a video phone call at the same time. It could transmit the whole printed contents of the Library of Congress in one second and every movie ever made in four minutes, according to Cisco.

"This is the heart and brains of the next-generation Internet," said Suraj Shetty, vice president of worldwide service provider marketing.

Also on the webcast, AT&T announced it has been using the CRS-3 to test 100Gbit/sec. data links in tests on a commercial fiber route in Florida and Louisiana. The router will be available in the third quarter this year.