NET RESULTS Cisco to roll out first joint StrataCom product

Less than a year after Cisco Systems bought StrataCom, the first joint switch/router product is about to hit the streets. Cisco is expected to unveil the new 3800 access concentrator at Networld+Interop this week in Las Vegas.

Pacific Bell is the first Bell regional holding company to use the 3800 for its new FasTrak ATM Cell Relay service. Pacific Bell plans to deploy the 3800 as part of its network to target medium-sized businesses and branch offices with the packet-switched service.

The 3800 combines Cisco's IOS routing software and StrataCom's cell switching. It runs voice and multiprotocol data and over frame relay or asynchronous transfer mode. The access concentrator began as a StrataCom project, but when the company was acquired by Cisco it became a joint undertaking.

"We take the protocol richness of IOS, even though it meant scrapping a lot of the [StrataCom-developed] software, then we build back in the cell switching and voice," said Byron Henderson, Cisco's director of marketing for WAN access products.

Other players such as Fastcomm, Cascade Communications and Micom/Northern Telecom have similar types of products, although the 3800 is more feature-rich and more expensive, said Craig Johnson, director and principal analyst for Current Analysis, a consultancy based in Ashburn, Va.

"For Cisco, this is the right product. They should have had it out earlier, but the window has not closed on them," he said.

Since buying StrataCom, the challenge for Cisco has been melding the Internet protocol/router-centric world, of which it owns 70% to 80% of the installed base, with the frame relay/ATM world of StrataCom, which was a leader in the carrier-class space. The two sides have a traditional rivalry, sometimes referred to as the "Netheads" vs. the "Bellheads.

"You can't knock Cisco," Johnson said. "They're dealing with a huge installed base. They understand that switching and routing have to meld, that they have to migrate, but they also have a large installed base to pull along. They have to play both sides of the fence for now.

Just as Cisco is bringing switching to its routers, the company also plans to bring routing to the big StrataCom switches, he said.

Henderson sees the two-sided approach as an advantage. Instead of being in either the router or switching sector like many companies, Cisco now looks at both, he said. "It depends on whether they want to integrate traffic," Johnson said. "If customers want to combine voice and data, they'll look to the 3800. For LAN traffic and data, routers will continue.

The 3800 is designed to work in a network with Cisco's IGX edge switch for frame relay and StrataCom's BPX for carriers, said Gary Borad, Cisco's senior product manager in the WAN business unit. Because it can handle originating voice, data and video traffic, the need for a collocated access device to decompress or interpret traffic is eliminated.

Customers are enthusiastic so far, Borad said, adding that "we can't build them fast enough.

The Cisco 3800 comes in three models: the 3810 with one slot, the 3830 with three slots and the 3880 with eight. Field trials are already under way, and the product will be available in June.