Cisco plans network software overhaul

Cisco Systems this summer plans to release a major overhaul of its Internetwork operating system, a move that is expected to bring long overdue improvements--and some possible complications--to software that runs most of the world's routers.

The upgrade to the software known as IOS will be demonstrated on a new core router that will be unveiled in June at the Supercomm tradeshow in Chicago, company representatives said Tuesday. That device, code-named Huge Fast Router, or HFR, will be the first router to support single 40 gigabits per second optical interfaces. The total system capacity of the new 16-slot chassis will be at least 640 gigabits per second--double that of any product from Juniper Networks, Cisco's closest competitor in the market for core routers that power network backbones.

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