Czech National Research Network CESNET2 Installs One of World's Most Powerful Routers

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC--(Marketwire - December 18, 2008) - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that the CESNET Association, which operates CESNET2, the Czech Republic's national research network, has completed a major backbone network upgrade and implemented the Cisco® CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, one of the world's most powerful routers. The system provides great resiliency and availability of network services, enables the utilisation of advanced networking technologies and supports increased video traffic. The solution is prepared to achieve a multiterabit aggregated capacity of the routing system in CESNET's real-life environment.

"The nature of the services provided on the academic network is shifting from text to multimedia and video, which require a substantially higher transfer capacity. CESNET2's upgraded 10-gigabit optical network now opens the space for introducing new types of applications," said Helmut Sverenyák, deputy research and development manager for CESNET.

CESNET2 connects close to 100 science, research and education institutions, including the country's leading universities. It is also connected to the pan-European GÉANT network and other European academic networks like Sanet (Slovakia), Aconet (Austria) and Pionier (Poland). This enables the Czech academic community to collaborate with their peers across Europe and elsewhere.

With the Cisco CRS-1, CESNET2 is able to scale network capacity to a new level and deliver next-generation data, voice and video services via a converged Internet Protocol (IP) network. "This is one of the first implementations of such a system in the Czech Republic. It saves space and power and optimizes the cooling process, taking into consideration environmental aspects as well," explained Jan Šíp, sales and technical director at Intercom Systems, a Cisco Silver Certified Partner, which was responsible for the implementation.

The solution also includes fully tuneable 10-gigabit Ethernet dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) interfaces. These can be directly connected from the Cisco CRS-1 to the existing DWDM system without transponder cards. "The resulting benefits are cost savings and a limited number of devices in the path, which simplifies the management and increases resiliency of the whole system," added Pavel Křižanovský, systems engineering manager at Cisco Czech Republic.

About CESNET

The CESNET association was established by Czech universities and the Czech Republic's Academy of Science. Currently, it is primarily financed by the governmental Research and Development Council and uses member funds. The association focuses on the research and development of information and communication technologies and it creates and develops the CESNET2 national gigabit optical network designed for research and education. Due to its research activities and the results achieved, CESNET represents the Czech Republic within the project aiming to establish GÉANT2, a Pan-European network, and plays an active role in its implementation.

For further information, please visit: http://www.cesnet.cz/

About Intercom Systems

INTERCOM SYSTEMS a.s. is a dynamic company and a long-time player in the Czech ICT market. It is a Certified Cisco Silver Partner and offers pre-sale consultancy, network designs and solutions (including optical and wireless), safety and integration, Triple Play project solutions and consultancy, training and workshops. The company has implemented a wide range of projects for customers, including educational institutions, public authorities, banks and utilities. For further information please visit: http://www.intercomsys.cz/

About Cisco Systems

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc

Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit "News@Cisco" at the following link:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

Contact Information: Press Contact: Judit Sinkó +36 30 9493 405 jsinko@cisco.com Investor Relations Contact: Matthew Hardwick + 44 20 8824 1970 mahardwi@cisco.com Analyst Relations Contact: Sharon Robinson + 27 21 4134577 sharobin@cisco.com