Cisco has unveiled a new Internet router that promises much faster web speeds. The CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS), which it says will ‘change the Internet forever’, will offer 12 times the traffic capacity of other systems on the market.
The firm hopes the new router will serve as the foundation of the next generation of the Internet, Cisco CEO John Chambers said.
It triples the capacity of its predecessor and can enable every person in China to make a video call simultaneously. Its higher capacity can enable the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes, Cisco said.
Chambers added that the CRS-3 will handle the huge amount of video traffic that is expected to swamp the Internet over the next few years. “Video is the killer app, it brings the Internet to life. Whether it’s gaming or 3D sports, it’s all about video,” he said.
The CRS-3 is aimed at Internet service providers (ISPs) and has been trialled by AT&T, which tested 100-Gigabit backbone network technology across its live network between New Orleans and Miami.
It is essentially an update to the CRS-1, which was launched in 2004. The CRS-1 had a capacity of 92 terabits per second (tbps), while the CRS-3 offers a capacity of 322 tbps.
The CRS-3 is expected to go on sale during Q3 this year and will be priced from $90,000.
