With expected near-term performance availability up to 25 Terabits per second (Tbps), Cisco Silicon One is a networking chip designed to be universally adaptable across service provider and web-scale markets.
As port rates increase from 100G to 400G and beyond, optics become an increasingly larger portion of the cost to build and operate Internet infrastructure. That’s why Cisco is investing in optics development.
The first Cisco Silicon One ‘Q100’ model would surpass the 10Tbps routing milestone for network bandwidth “without sacrificing programmability, buffering, power efficiency, scale or feature flexibility.”
The new Cisco 8000 series is the first platform built with Cisco Silicon One ‘Q100’. It is engineered to help service providers and web-scale companies reduce the costs of building and operating mass-scale networks for the 5G, AI and IoT era.
“Cisco is changing the economics of powering the Internet, innovating across hardware, software, optics and silicon to help its customers better manage the operational costs to function on a larger scale for the next phase of the Internet,” said Ray Mota, CEO and principal analyst at ACG Research. “As we move to 2020, the timing of delivering operational efficiency will be vital.”
Standout features of the new Cisco 8000 series with Cisco Silicon One Q100 would include:
- Optimized for 400 Gbps and beyond, starting at 10.8 Tbps in just a single rack unit
- Powered by the new, cloud-enhanced Cisco IOS XR7 networking operating system software, designed to simplify operations and lower operational costs
- Offers enhanced cybersecurity with integrated trust technology for real-time insights into the trustworthiness of your critical infrastructure
- Service providers gain more bandwidth scale and programmability to deliver Tbps in even the most power and space constrained network locations
Cisco is working with a group of pioneering customers on deployments and trials of the Cisco 8000 Series. STC, a telecom services provider in the Middle East, Northern Africa region, marks the first customer deploying the new technology. Ongoing trials include Comcast and NTT Communications among others.
“We look forward to working with Cisco as it enters the high-end routing silicon space, collaborating to help meet the next generation of network demands for higher speeds and greater capacity,” said Amin Vahdat, fellow and vice president of Systems Infrastructure, Google Cloud.
“Facebook has been a strong advocate for network disaggregation and open ecosystems, launching key industry initiatives such as the Open Compute Project and the Telecom Infrastructure Project to transform the networking industry,” said Najam Ahmad, vice president, Network Engineering at Facebook. “Cisco’s new Silicon One architecture is aligned with this vision, and we believe this model offers network operators diverse and flexible options through a disaggregated approach.”
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 offers customers choice of components, white box, or integrated systems to build their networks. This approach would match the evolving nature of operators selecting discrete or aggregated technology elements for their buildout.
