VZW Ethernet backhaul built by Cisco
Verizon Wireless is using Cisco’s ASR 9000 edge routers to fulfill its recently announced plans to use carrier Ethernet to boost the capacity of its wireless backhaul networks to accommodate 3G and 4G bandwidth needs.
Cisco isn’t the only vendor Verizon is using for this upgrade, but the carrier won’t identify its other source. (Feel free to make the case for your own guess in the comments section below.)
The ASR 9000, which just became available in this year’s first quarter, is only a carrier Ethernet product if its user chooses to deploy it as such. The edge gear supports either Layer 2 or Layer 3 functions within the same line card, giving carriers the flexibility to establish their own preferred balance of the two technologies.
It also shares the same operating system as Cisco’s giant CRS-1 core router and a distributed control plane architecture that pushes resources from the core to the edge, so it makes sense that VZW, which late last year became the CRS-1’s biggest customer, would follow with the 9000s.
A Verizon spokesperson declined to offer much detail into their deployment of the ASRs. “We use the ASR 9000 for aggregating our cell site routers,” he told Telephony today. “It serves the function of an MLS (multi-layer switch) and a router.”
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Ed, it’s encouraging to see the wireless service providers in the U.S. prepare for the upside in wireless broadband applications — both consumer and enterprise.
When you consider the difference in how the average (not early adopter) user in either South Korea or Japan use both devices and services compared to America, the growth potential is truly significant.
Hopefully, 2009 will be the year that Internet use on mobile devices starts the second phase of it’s evolution in the U.S. Kudos to Verizon Wireless for investing in infrastructure, given the tough economy, in anticipation of further user adoption.
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