Cisco's promise of news that would change the internet forever was the announcement of its CRS-3 Carrier Routing System. Sounds exciting right? Well the name may not imply much, but this could be the basis of the next-generation internet.
With capacity more than 12 times greater than current competitors and triple the scale of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-3 can pipe up to 322 Terabits per second.
For perspective, Cisco offers a few examples of what is possible. Using a CRS-3, Cisco claims it is possible to download the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
AT&T pushed out its own press release regarding its Cisco CRS-3 testing. Touting it as the world's first field trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology, AT&T's used its live network between New Orleans and Miami. The trial advances AT&T's development of the next generation of backbone network technology that will support the network requirements for the rapidly growing demand from fixed and mobile devices.
Matthew Fortner has been at The News & Observer since 2002. He has a passion for gadgets, cutting-edge technology and all things geek.
Comments
Nothing new here; business
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 19:17 — ctillNothing new here; business as usual. Telecom devices are supposed to get better, faster, and cheaper every year. It's been that way since transistors in the 1950s.
but regarding mobile performance
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 17:09 — matthewfortner (author)Wouldn't the last mile for mobile benefit?
Still the "last mile" is the worst
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:57 — The_Nags_HeadUnless you're living on campus, not much chance of us average users seeing any of this speed due to the "last mile" connection issues.
I'm pretty sure the line from the nearest junction box to my house is composed of cotton string, bailing wire, and field phone wire that was surplus from WWII.
Your being a little to literal
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:37 — antwaingOf course a router cant do it, but thousands of routers going at the same time wont slow each other down over a line with that much capacity is the point they are trying to make.
Sort of like how TWC slows down at peek hours now because of multiple households online.
Thanks for pointing that out
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 15:35 — matthewfortner (author)Thanks for pointing that out and please never assume that I or any other blogger don't need to be informed or corrected.
Clarification on "download speed"
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 14:10 — weeksgrooveprobably don't need to explain this on the tech blog, but i am sure some one read that an thought that they could download the library of congress in a second.
for those that don't know what a router is, think of it as your local post office getting an upgrade from being able to sort 100 pieces of mail an hour to 1200 pieces of mail per hour. Your computer or mailbox in this scenario, can still only process, at a max, 1 piece of mail per hour. So you won't be able to download large movies in less than a second or the library of congress in a second to your PC. Sure it may end up downloading a bit faster, but only up to the max of 1 piece of mail per hour.
Still, to have a router process that much info, that quickly, is just nasty.