Cisco has unveiled its plans for "building a new internet" for the next decade, based around its own unified silicon architecture for networking equipment. The company's latest routing series, the Cisco 8000 is the first to use the chip and is already in trials with customers.
The multi-year strategy is built around Cisco Silicon One, Cisco's own chip architecture for its routing portfolio. The first product is the Q100 model supporting over 10 Tbps, and Cisco expects the platform to soon deliver performance of up to 25 Tbps.
The networking chip is designed to be universally adaptable across service provider and web-scale markets, working with both fixed and modular platforms. Traditionally, multiple types of silicon with different capabilities are used across a network and even within a single device. Developing new features and testing can be lengthy and expensive. A unified and programmable silicon will allow for network operators to greatly reduce costs of operations and reduce time-to-market for new services, the company said.
Najam Ahmad, vice president of Network Engineering at Facebook, welcomed the disaggregated approach at Cisco, saying this was in line with Facebook supported projects such as OCP and TIP. Amin Vahdat, VP of Systems Infrastructure at Google Cloud, also said his company looks forward to collaborating with Cisco to help meet the next generation of network demands.
The Q100 is the foundation of the new Cisco 8000 series. The routers are optimized for 400 Gbps and higher, starting at 10.8 Tbps in a single rack unit, and run the latest edition of the Cisco IOS XR7 networking operating system software, designed to simplify operations and lower operational costs, the company said.
Saudi operator STC is the first customer deploying the equipment, and Cisco said trials are also ongoing with Comcast and NTT Communications, among others.
Cisco is also opening up on the optics side, noting that the migration from 100G to 400G means optics are becoming an increasingly larger portion of the cost to build and operate internet infrastructure. Through the company’s qualification program, Cisco will test its optics to comply with industry standards and operate in Cisco and non-Cisco hosts. As a result, customers can use Cisco optics in applications where non-Cisco hosts have been deployed and have confidence that they meet the reliability and quality standards that they have come to expect from Cisco, the company said.
In addition, as silicon and silicon photonics advance, functions that were traditionally delivered in separate chassis-based solutions will soon be available in pluggable form factors. According to the company, this transition has significant potential benefits for network operators in terms of operational simplicity.
Cisco also announced plans to offer flexible consumption models first established with Cisco’s Optics portfolio, followed by the disaggregation of the Cisco IOS XR7 software, and now including Cisco Silicon One. This new model is highly adaptable and offers customers choice of components, white box, or integrated systems to build their networks.
