Networking giant Cisco Systems Inc, has signed an agreement with telecommunications specialist Alcatel Telecom SA, to develop, produce and market combined product lines. Initially Alcatel will integrate Cisco’s tag IP switching and IOS internetworking operating system software, and Cisco will use Alcatel’s discrete multi tone flavor of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line technology (CI No 3,160). […]
Networking giant Cisco Systems Inc, has signed an agreement with telecommunications specialist Alcatel Telecom SA, to develop, produce and market combined product lines. Initially Alcatel will integrate Cisco’s tag IP switching and IOS internetworking operating system software, and Cisco will use Alcatel’s discrete multi tone flavor of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line technology (CI No 3,160). The initial applications of Tag and IOS will be integrated into Alcatel’s asynchronous transfer mode and ISDN switches, with possible extension into SONET and SDH- compatible high speed optical transmisssion products and GSM mobile phone products – though Cisco would not comment on when this would be completed. The long-term plan is to jointly propose standards to the Internet Engineering Task Force, for the fusing of switching and routing standards, that enable the transfer of high speed IP over ATM in all types of networks. Although Cisco acquired asynchronous transfer mode of its own last year in the shape of StrataCom Inc (CI No 2,907), Cisco says StrataCom’s strength is low-end wide area network edge switches while Alcatel has concentrated on the high-end telecommunications carrier market.
