Cisco Systems today announced the introduction of support for Internet Protocol over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (IPoDWDM) on its CRS-1 Carrier Routing System. Additionally, the company has confirmed that Comcast is now using the largest of the vendor’s routing platforms.

Announced during the annual Worldwide Analyst Conference, the new capabilities in the CRS-1 are encompassed in two line cards. One is a tunable 10 Gigabits per second card that has been beefed up using a spectrum density technology to provide enough capacity for 40 Gb/s traffic

"We’ve quadrupled the capacity of the existing DWDM structure without any additional cost,” said Suraj Shetty, director of marketing for routing and service provider technology at Cisco. The other card gives includes Ethernet support, but also links that traffic into a Sonet management structure.

Though the company won’t get specific about the technology, Shetty said, “the closest analogy is the 64 QAM and when it was increased to 256 QAM. It’s not the same technology, but it’s similar to that.”

Comcast’s decision to use the CRS-1 comes in large part because the cable operator has been pushing to move more traffic to IP, according to a prepared statement from Vik Saxena, Comcast Director of IP Architecture.

"Comcast's and Cisco's shared vision of integrated 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s DWDM interfaces, was one of the key reasons for our selection of the CRS-1," he said. "As we move to transport all services over IP, including broadcast video and video on demand, cost-effectiveness, scalability, reliability, and service flexibility become critical.”