Cisco upgrades Catalyst 6500 Series

Latest version designed to boost quality and security of multimedia apps

Cisco has announced an upgrade to its Catalyst 6500 Series switches that is designed to boost the quality and security of interactive, multimedia applications such as video and voice over IP.

Cisco's UK & Ireland network systems market manager, Martin Cook, said the upgrade brings hardware-level packet inspection to the Catalyst 6500 Series.

"We're upgrading the Supervisor Engine 32 with new hardware called Programmable Intelligent Services Accelerator [Pisa]. This component allows us to look deeper into network traffic packets, allowing us to recognise, control and ensure delivery of business-critical applications," Cook said.

To ensure quality of service (QoS), Pisa links to Cisco’s QoS Policy Manager 4.0 application, while a link to its Monitoring, Analysis and Response System (Mars) environment and Cisco Security Manager 3.1 take care of security. Cook said Pisa would enable network managers to drop unwanted peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent, Kazaa and Gnutella at the network edge.

The company said its new Catalyst 6500 switches reflect recent changes in the nature of enterprise network traffic. "Traditionally you'd get client-server apps, but new applications like the IP telephony and some of the collaboration-type apps are peer-to-peer, so we're seeing edge-to-edge traffic that doesn't necessarily hit the network centre, and that has an impact, because most networks have been designed for client-server applications," Cook said.

Cisco is also expanding its 7200 Series range of routers with a new model aimed at enterprises and service providers with limited space in their wiring closets. Cisco said the Cisco 7201 Router delivers better performance and lower power consumption in a compact 1U form factor.

The 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with Pisa and eight one-gigabit Ethernet uplinks will be available in June priced at around £14,000 + VAT. A model with two 10GbE uplinks will also be available in June for the same price. The Cisco 7201 series router is available now, priced at around £12,000 + VAT.