Cisco 8000 Router Product Introduction and Competitive Analysis

In the future, many people and devices will join the internet, driving everything towards digitalization. This will make our lives more colorful, mining safer, agriculture more efficient, transportation more convenient, and healthcare faster. All of this represents new opportunities and will take on new forms. The network infrastructure will become a catalyst for national economic and social development, making everything imaginable possible.

Let’s take a look at some data: by 2022, 60% of the world’s population will be connected to the internet, with an average of four internet-connected devices per person, such as smartphones, iPads, and PCs. The number of connected devices is expected to reach 15 billion, with an average bandwidth of 75 Mbps. However, from the perspective of network operators’ business operations, they are still facing challenges as revenue growth has almost stagnated, while capital expenditures and operating costs have increased by 11 times and 5 times respectively. Therefore, for enterprises, the consideration must be to reduce costs and increase capacity but also find new areas of growth.

The number of devices connected to the internet is not increasing linearly, but exponentially. In the face of such growth, how should we respond? We must redefine the internet economy and design new chips, optical technologies, systems, and software to meet this growth and address these needs through innovation. We must innovate in different directions and dimensions, and establish new network architectures, such as cloud architecture or cloud-based architecture, that can scale or horizontally expand.

In addition, what we must focus on is cost and energy efficiency. Operating expenses are the first priority.

First, let’s take a look at the Silicon ONE chip.

Silicon ONE is a routing chip that truly exceeds 10T in capacity and has the efficiency of a switch chip. In 2019, Broadcom released its next-generation chip, Trident, which can achieve 25.6T, but it is not the same type of chip as Silicon ONE. In addition to its high performance, the Silicon ONE chip performs well in aspects such as QC, buffer, and flexibility. With this chip, targeted designs can be made for multiple segmented markets.

Let’s take a look at the new router platform from Cisco, the 8000 series which uses Silicon ONE chips. There are a total of five devices, including two fixed box devices and three modular devices. The three modular devices are the 8000-8, 8000-12, and 8000-18. Huawei’s new router products, on the other hand, include the NE8000-X4 and NE8000-X8 models (with the X16 yet to be released).

The above image provides some specific information, stating that the current box-style equipment can support a maximum of 36×400G.

The Cisco 8000 router is a high-end flagship core router from Cisco, which can help customers increase revenue, simplify architecture, scale up and improve performance, lower costs, and mitigate risks.

Let’s take a look at the roadmap for the 8000 series.

What can Cisco bring to us?

• Port capacity from 1G to 100G to 400G
• Technical experts and industry leaders
• World-class servers
• Excellent software and hardware platforms
• End-to-end architecture
• Business model innovation

Key Features

• Up to~260Tbps
• 400GbE Optimized with support for Terabit ports
• Fixed and Modular systems

Target Use Cases

• Core LSR
• Cloud Aggregation

Value Propositions

• Unprecedented scale &performance
• Trusted SW& HW platform
• Programmability accelerates feature velocity to unlock customer-led innovation
• Fabric redundancy without compromise
• New silicon architecture ensures Cisco standard platform longevity

8000 series router analysis for different client needs:

1. For existing customers: Cisco 8000 series can be purchased if you require 14.4T per slot.
2. For existing or new customers: evaluate opportunity with BU PLM, use case, density, features, and platform longevity, Cisco 8000 and NCS 5500 series both work.
3. If you want to compete against 14.4T/slot high-density products from Arista or Juniper, then the Cisco 8000 series is a better choice.