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Interview With Cisco's -Ing. Wolfgang Fischer
Published Dec 25, 2011
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Q. Please give us a brief about your company.
Cisco is the worldwide leader for networking solution for enterprise and service provider networks. This includes the widest possible range of connectivity solutions but increasingly also applications like, for example, Telepresence or Webex and data center solutions.
Q. What are your company’s solutions for FTTH Networks? Which vertical markets do you serve?
Our company’s solutions for FTTH networks are primarily based on our strength in Ethernet which we have developed in the enterprise market for many years and which we have taken to the service provider market about ten years ago. We started with deployments in Italy and Sweden and then extended across Europe, the Middle East and other regions where we have been quite successful with this kind of solution.
We are serving all the different markets in the service provider arena starting from utilities and municipalities who have been deploying this kind of technology on a very large scale, as well as more and more incumbent service providers who are also favoring these solutions.
Q. In your experience, is the application of triple play a sign that voice, data and video convergence will be the trend on a large scale? What are the future prospects of triple play?
Yes, I think this is a trend on a large scale. We have seen this coming in enterprise networks. For example Cisco has been working on unified solutions for a long time where data, voice and video is integrated. I think you see this very clearly from the fact that all the different solutions are supported by a common IP-based network.
You need to look at each of these services in terms of their specific requirements, but they will certainly all travel over the same network and will even become more and more integrated. When you look at video conferencing, you have a natural voice and video integration. When you look at applications like WebEx, this even integrates voice, video and data within the same application.
So I think this is a trend which we have seen in enterprise networking. And it is already happening at the consumer level when you look at Skype for example. Skype is a perfect example for integration of voice and video already including the chat and data. So I think there is clearly a trend that this integration will happen more and more.
Q. What kind of network infrastructure do you recommend to support triple play and/or growing data needs?
We distinguish between the passive infrastructure for FTTH deployment and the technology that is being used and in both cases we have preferences. For the passive infrastructure we recommend to use a point-to-point fiber topology because we believe that this is the most flexible and most future proof solution, which is independent of any specific technology and also of any business model. So you can run every technology and support every business model over this infrastructure.
When you have deployed this infrastructure then you need to choose the technology. The main contenders in the FTTH area today are Ethernet and PON with all its different flavors. GPON happens to be the most popular one in Europe but there are other flavors as well.
As a technology we favor Ethernet because of its flexibility, its scalability, and because it is a well established technology from the market for enterprises, where we have shipped many tens of millions of ports already. And it is cost effective so there is no issue with the cost as some people claim. So we believe this is the most powerful solution.
Q. Do you think fiber might replace copper for networks generally?
Absolutely, it’s not a question of “whether”, it’s only a question of “when”. Certainly different countries have their own targets. Some small countries already have close to 100% penetration of homes with fiber. These countries will remove the copper at some point in time. We see some countries half way there; other countries are still in the beginning. So on a worldwide scale this will take a long time. For individual countries this will happen much faster but the general trend is definitely there. It is happening as we speak.
Q. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
The differentiation is on multiple fronts. Cisco can provide an end-to-end solution across the entire network, starting from the access network all the way through the aggregation network, core network with all the management, data centers, and also support the different services in specific ways. This is partly also based on our experience in the enterprise market where much of what we’re seeing in the service provider market today has been pioneered.
And certainly there are a few other aspects about Cisco as a company. We are one of the most financially stable companies, so when a service provider decides to build a nationwide new infrastructure, it is certainly very comforting for them to work with a company that has a worldwide presence and is making profit. You can be sure that Cisco will still be around for a long time to come.
Posted by VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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