From video downloads on an Internet site to company broadcasts to live meetings, video traffic is increasing on many corporate networks. Cisco has long transported many varieties of video traffic, along with data and voice, across its corporate network.

By 2001, it was clear that a new WAN architecture was necessary to converge voice, video, and data onto a single, IP-based network. The new architecture would meet the requirements of video applications for low-latency paths, sufficient bandwidth, multicast support for large streaming broadcasts, and quality of service (QoS) protection to avoid delayed or dropped packets.

In North America, Cisco IT built a new, peer-to-peer WAN architecture with a SONET-based ring backbone and access links connecting each Cisco location to the nearest hub site. In Cisco European and Middle Eastern locations, a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN also supports a peer-to-peer network design.

The internal deployment of Cisco TelePresence systems, with their significantly higher bandwidth requirements, meant special network treatment was necessary in order to protect TelePresence traffic and to avoid interfering with other video traffic. Cisco IT created a more rigorous QoS scheme for classifying video traffic at the network edge. This QoS capability, and its ability to change as new media are added, is vital for creating a Media-Ready Network.

Today, Cisco’s Media Ready Network supports a variety of video applications, including Cisco TelePresence, room-based and desktop video conferencing, IPTV broadcasts, real-time streams and downloads for on-demand video files, and video camera streams for physical security monitoring.

To support this variety of applications, the IP WAN must meet four design criteria to be considered a Media-Ready Network: minimized latency over all transport technologies, adequate bandwidth, multicast capabilities, and support for consistent QoS policies across the LAN and WAN.

Cisco has gained significant business value from its Media-Ready Network, including easier deployment of new video technologies, network scalability to meet growing traffic demands, and simpler bandwidth management. For the future, the simplicity and flexibility of the Cisco WAN will make it easier to support new video applications without significant changes in the basic network topology and features.

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Cisco IT Unified Communications Solutions
Cisco Unified Communications Solutions