Cisco unveils long-awaited new edge router

The 9000 also includes a video module designed to distribute video content to the edge and maintain the exacting level of service quality that video demands. Using technology Cisco obtained through its 2006 acquisition of Arroyo Video Solutions, the module corrects errors in the video stream, rendering them invisible to the human eye, and allows for local ad insertion. Cisco introduced this Video Quality Experience technology in late 2006 as a discrete appliance to accompany its 7600 routers, with plans to integrate it into the 7600 itself. And according to Cisco, the modules stream and cache content, including up to 4 terabytes of Flash storage, obviating the need for standalone content delivery networking gear.

“You can turn the 9000 into a super-megastreamer at the distributed edge of the network,” said Brendan Gibbs, Cisco’s senior director of product marketing.

If Cisco’s new platform lives up to its promises, it could be a potent new challenge to Alcatel-Lucent and Juniper, which have done well in recent years competing against Cisco’s aging 7600 routers, Mota said, stressing the word “if.”

“The question is: How much of these features are actually going to be coming out in the box?” Mota said. “If all those features are in there, then yeah, this puts [Cisco] back in the game.”

Mota’s question is an important one. For example, though Cisco touted the aforementioned video module in the 9000’s press release, the module won’t be included with the first version of the 9000 available in next year’s first quarter, and Cisco won’t say when it will be available other than that it will be driven by customer demand.