"In the not too distant future, voice will be just another application on top of packet networks"

If there is a market that Cisco is clearly putting its money on, it is the service provider space. The potential customers here being Internet service providers, telephone companies, cable operators, and new entrants. Apart from supplying routers to these players, which it has been doing religiously and profitably so far, Cisco now believes it has a greater role to play. With optical networking solutions, IP and multi-services switches, remote access products, and software packages, it is now going to the service provider's door with an end-to-end offering. 

It is in this exciting space that Larry Lang sits loading his guns. Like most Cisco professional, he belongs to the disruption school of thought. But, a bit of a moderate as you will find out. Read on …

In the access market, you don't have a common platform for different accesses. Doesn't that mean parallel investments on different platforms for different access services?

No, Cisco doesn't have a common platform for different accesses. However, Cisco's access platforms do share commonalities such as the common core of Cisco IOS(R) software that crosses our platforms and the technology components for these platforms, switching engines and line cards across our access space. For example, Cisco's multiservice cable solutions use the same platform and core technologies as our broadband fixed wireless solutions. This allows our customers to protect their investment in Cisco products, and migrate solutions as their network needs change and progress.

Two years back you gave us the impression that circuit switches would quickly become obsolete. That is to be seen yet. Why the delay?

Telephone companies and service providers have been installing and maintaining circuit switched phone networks for 100 years. That equipment is paid for, in place, and handling phone calls. As with mainframes in the computer world, there's no reason service providers would rip out that equipment. But circuit switched phone networks are not growing, and in fact service providers are seeing shrinking revenues and traffic from voice services. In contrast, data networks are growing more than 30 percent year over year. Some service providers are already reaping more revenue from data networks and more data traffic than from voice, and that trend is accelerating. In the not too distant future, voice will be just another application on top of packet networks. It is from this converged network that enhanced voice services will be offered, delivering additional revenues to service providers.

Is Cisco developing Radio Frequency (RF) technologies for cellular networks, apart from playing a role in the IP infrastructure of the cellular operators? If so, what and when can we expect an integrated solution from Cisco?

No. Cisco is building in-building CDMA & 802.11 wireless LAN systems for Enterprise solutions. With our ecosystem of partners, Cisco is building integrated IP & Radio Frequency systems for GSM networks with. Cisco is the recognized leader in IP, and is working with our RF partners to migrate traditional cellular networks to an Internet-based model. Currently, we do not have plans of our own to build macro-cellular (wide-area) radios to address licensed spectrum opportunities.

According to market reports, Nortel and Lucent together control over 70 percent market share in a $20 billion plus optical transport market (Sonet/SDH/DWDM equipment). That leaves very little for others like Ciena and Cisco. How do you level the game a bit?

Nortel and Lucent do comprise the majority of the traditional circuit switched network market, both in copper and optical networking. However, those networks have been architected over the last 100 years to handle voice calls, resulting in network traffic and growth patterns that are predictable, and upgrades are time consuming and expensive. In addition, those networks are not optimized to handle data traffic. Data networks, which are growing more than 30 percent a year, grow unpredictably and very quickly, require flexible and highly scalable products, and need to be able to handle a variety of different data types. Cisco is the number one provider of data networking equipment and is bringing its expertise to the optical market with a complete suite of optical networking products and solutions.



Nareshchandra Laishram