Cisco has shipped 900 of its Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) platforms to more than 85 providers since the core router was first released in August 2004. Cisco said the rapid growth of CRS-1 sales has been both accompanied and, to some degree, driven by significant IP traffic growth on global networks as video and other advanced service deployments continue.
According to data compiled by Cisco and industry analysts, Internet video produced six times more IP traffic in 2006 than the amount of IP traffic that crossed the entire U.S. Internet backbone in 2000. By 2011, global IP traffic is projected to reach more than 26 exabytes per month (an exabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes).
In a conference call in May, Cisco CEO John Chambers said “Our high-end CRS-1 routers remained on a tear, with orders of almost 250 million in the quarter. That is an annualized run rate of approximately $1 billion. This is especially powerful when you compare it to prior quarters, which on average averaged a yearly run rate of approximately 400 million. I think what’s exciting about the CRS-1 is literally the order run rate of $1 billion, up from 400 million before, which really means often service providers build up the core first and then work out, in terms of handling the volume on it.”http://www.cisco.com
