TechPulse 360

Cisco Systems will broaden its strategy for building video-aware networks on Monday, unveiling new products and partnerships to further its Medianet efforts.

The networking giant will show off the first in a portfolio of Media Processing products: the Media Experience Engine 3000.  The Media Experience Engine 3000 formats video and other rich Internet content for display on variety of devices, including PCs and mobile phones.

Cisco's newly launched ASR 9000 routers are part of Medianet

The company also will say that AT&T has added new capabilities to its AT&T Telepresence Solution. The added capabilities enable interactive, video-conference calling with Cisco’s Telepresence products beyond the bounds of an organization so that customers can conduct meetings with partners and clients.

Cisco’s Medianet strategy is aimed at readying the Internet and corporate networks for what the company believes will be a massive increase in online video traffic. For instance:

Cisco projects IP traffic will grow more than six fold from 2007 to 2012, reaching 44 exabytes a month in 2012 from less than 7 last year.

In addition, by 2012, close to 90 percent of consumer Internet traffic will be video.

The Medianet strategy intends to cope with the onslaught by adding intelligence to networks and relying on technologies to detect traffic conditions and recognize the types of video traveling among destinations.

The company illustrates its strategy with the example of a high-definition video stream sent from a surveillance camera and viewed on a manager’s mobile phone. For top performance, the resolution and format of the stream needs to be adapted for the phone’s screen and for the speed of the wireless network.

Cisco describes Medianet as an evolution of existing IP networks that will reply on new products and new services added to today’s routers, switches and other network gear.