ORLANDO, Fla. and SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - News) today announced the SL-Series interface for the Cisco® ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) helps to enable the delivery of Fibre Channel-based storage-area-network (SAN)-extension services over Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) networks.

The new SL-Series interface supports four gigabit-interface-converter (GBIC)-based ports, each capable of 1- and 2-Gbps Fibre Channel at line rates, providing the Cisco ONS 15454 with the highest-density of protected Fibre Channel ports, or 40 Fibre Channel interfaces, in the industry.

A Cisco ONS 15454-based service network can use the Cisco ML-Series and SL-Series interfaces to provide SAN-extension services using native Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, or Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol (FCIP) with standards-based generic framing procedure-transparent (GFP-T) and virtual concatenation (VCAT) technology. The SAN-extension services can be created and managed in a unified way using the same management tools used to create time-division multiplexing (TDM) and Ethernet services. The SL-Series interface will support Fibre Channel-transport services at subrates, resulting in cost-effective SAN-extension services delivered to the marketplace by managed service providers. The SL-Series interface is currently being certified across all major SAN original storage manufacturer (OSM) applications.

The Cisco ONS 15454, with SL-Series and ML-Series interfaces, provides SAN-extension services to Cisco MDS 9000-based SANs by transporting technologies such as virtual storage area networks (VSANs) for SAN isolation and PortChannel implementations for link-level redundancy. Cisco's complete SAN-extension portfolio combines native Fibre Channel, FCIP, and Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) technologies on the Cisco MDS Family of storage switches, DWDM-based SAN services over the Cisco ONS 15530 and ONS 15540, FCIP-based interfaces on the Cisco 7200 and 7400 series routers, and multiservice transport over the Cisco ONS 15454. This portfolio allows the creation of SAN-extension services without boundaries using Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, IP and SONET/SDH technologies.

"The SL-series adds flexibility to Cisco's Multiservice over SONET/SDH offering, supporting both the 15454's installed base and new builds," said Dave Dunphy, a Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "Initially adding critical TDM-based Fibre Channel support, the SL-series will complement Cisco's existing DWDM and IP-based SAN extension capabilities to give enterprises and a variety of service providers a wide choice in Cisco-based SAN extension options tailored to their needs."

Cisco Systems Inc.