Megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte. Now get ready for zettabyte. Cisco is one of the first companies to take the wraps off what will likely become commonplace in the near future: a zettabyte-capable router. <\/p>\n
The Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series, or ASR 9000, is perhaps a little head of its time but it is readying for the era of non-stop video on demand and huge Internet traffic spikes. <\/p>\n
The router is designed to cope with the demands of a rapid Internet growth and is intended for major Internet junction nodes. <\/p>\n
Cisco says that according to its latest research it expects to see IP traffic nearly double every two years, growing at around 46% a year from 2007 to 2012. That growth would result in an annual bandwidth demand on the world’s IP networks of approximately 522 exabytes, or more than half a zettabyte. <\/p>\n
To put that into context, 522 exabytes is approximately the equivalent of downloading 125 billion DVD movies a month.<\/p>\n
But don’t expect the ASR 9000 to become a household fixture right now. With a launch price tag of $80 000 (around R820 000) it’s not going to be in this year’s Christmas shopping list. <\/p>\n