The best Cisco ESR-1GE

As competition among broadband service providers intensifies, cable operators face an ever-increasing demand to economically transport new and existing services over their hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) access and metro networks. IP, DOCSIS ®, and Gigabit Ethernet have emerged as important technologies, enabling operators to move to a single, unified, switched intelligent network infrastructure. Cable operators have increasingly turned to the Ethernet protocol as a Layer 2 metro network solution. Ethernet-based technologies are a big driver behind the transformation of cable operators into successful providers of commercial services. Operators can use Gigabit Ethernet on their unidirectional systems to deliver video on demand (VoD) and broadcast digital video services to business customers. They can carry cable modem traffic and business data from secure virtual private network (VPN) connections over bidirectional Ethernet facilities using optics directly integrated into edge switches and routers.

Cable operators are uniquely positioned to challenge telecommunications companies and satellite video providers. Gigabit Ethernet provides the traffic engineering and distance capabilities of traditional network technologies, but at a fraction of the cost. The benefits of cable’s HFC presence, coupled with modern, easy-to-deploy Gigabit Ethernet technology, position cable operators to address emerging capabilities using wholly owned modern HFC networks that not only provide superior performance, but also offer equipment diversity and alternative routing over competitive solutions.

To meet cable operator demands to deploy Gigabit Ethernet technology, as well as address increasing needs for modularity and density, Cisco Systems ® offers the Cisco ® Gigabit Ethernet Half-Height Line Card for the Cisco uBR10012 Universal Broadband Router. The line card offers an IEEE 802.3z-compliant Ethernet interface that can run up to 1 Gbps in full-duplex mode. The card uses a Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) gigabit interface converter (GBIC) module that supports a variety of Gigabit Ethernet interface types (SX, LX/LH, and ZX) which operators can change or upgrade at any time.