Enhancing today's networks and building tomorrow's infrastructure places new capacity demands on programmable switching platforms. The VCO/4K open programmable switch from Cisco contains 4088 ports---the largest single switch capacity in the industry---providing scalable growth designed to deliver the price/performance you need in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The VCO/4K switch enables service providers worldwide to build scalable, cost-effective networks that support the rapid deployment of wireline and wireless voice services. It integrates seamlessly into existing telecommunication infrastructures to deliver enhanced voice services for the PSTN as well as for new world packet-based networks. As an integrated option for Cisco AccessPath-VS3, this flexible solution acts as a mixed environment gateway for circuit- and packet-switched networks.

The VCO/4K open, programmable switch is the basis for some of the most innovative applications on the market today, such as voice/fax messaging, intelligent 800-number routing, voice-activated dialing, calling card, personal- assistant services, and Web-based conferencing. In addition, it can support core switching functions such as Class 4, base station control, mobility management, and wireless local loop.

System Features

Designed for large service providers such as Post, Telephone, and Telegraphs (PTTs), regional bell operating companies (RBOCs), inter-exchange carriers (IXCs), and large Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs), AccessPath-VS3 supports up to 84 ISDN PRI/T1/E1s in a single system. High availability of 99.99998% with no single point-of-failure, Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) Level 3 compliance, and a user-friendly web based configuration tool facilitate quick deployment of Carrier-Class toll-quality voice and fax services. Dynamic, on-the-fly, support of a variety of codecs including G.711, G.729, and G.723.1, on any port in the AccessPath-VS3, as well as H.323 compliance, facilitate comprehensive phone-to-phone, PC-to-phone, and PC-to-PC suites of packet telephony solutions, for large and geographically distributed voice over IP (VoIP) networks.

Rapid growth of the Internet continues to stress the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Existing architectures for large remote access points of presence (POP) rely on expensive legacy circuit switches to aggregate traffic within the PSTN. For many carriers switches are overloaded and

reaching capacity. Trunks with excessive Internet traffic are inefficiently used. New facilities can't be provisioned quickly enough to satisfy demand. Planning and engineering is difficult. Meanwhile, Internet access points of presence (POPs) are becoming as large as the legacy PSTN switches that

deliver their traffic. ISDN PRIs do not scale to the level required. Problems of scaling and escalating costs are driving carriers to seek new solutions and create new market opportunities that are optimized for Internet access. Service providers around the world are seeking innovative ways to integrate dial access into their network infrastructure to off-load voice switches, realize new revenue opportunities, reduce operations costs, and scale their networks cost effectively.

Cisco has the solution today. The Cisco SC2200 signaling controller provides centralized functions for adding Signaling System #7 (SS7) interfaces to large remote access POPs. Adding SS7 with Cisco provides the ability to fully integrate dial-access POPs within the circuit switched network infrastructure. For example, one major carrier expects savings of 50 percent on switching interface costs while simultaneously reducing trunk costs by 30 percent with the Cisco solution.