Few days ago, Cisco announced the results of the latest Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) testing, marking the first-ever software upgrade of an Internet Protocol (IP) router aboard a commercial satellite while in orbit. In addition, Cisco completed the industry’s first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call made without the use of any terrestrial infrastructure to route the call. Cisco’s IRIS technology will let you make a VoIP call over the satellite  – and here’s the kicker – without using any terrestrial infrastructure to route the call. That’s a radical departure from current communications satellite technology, which relies on ground-based [...]

Often in a network environment, it is needed to manage a router/switch via console, but what can you do if you don’t have a computer with a serial interface? You can use another router! It is easy to do it. 1) Connect the console interface of the router/switch to the router aux interface using a rollover cable. Rollover cables essentially have one end of the cable wired exactly opposite from the other. As you can see below, this essentially “rolls over” the wires.

Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems. The name cron comes from the word “chronos”, Greek for “time”. Cron enables users to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run periodically at certain times or dates. It is commonly used to automate system maintenance or administration, though its general-purpose nature means that it can be used for other purposes, such as connecting to the Internet and downloading email. What can I use to schedule a script or a command in Cisco? The kron feature Kron provides the ability to schedule some EXEC command-line interface (CLI) commands [...]

Spanning tree is a link layer network protocol invented by Radia Perlman, that ensures a loop-free topology for any bridged LAN. Thus, the basic function of STP is to prevent bridge loops and ensuing broadcast radiation. As the name suggests, it creates a spanning tree within a mesh network of connected layer-2 bridges (typically Ethernet switches), and disables those links that are not part of the spanning tree, leaving a single active path between any two network nodes. The STP is a simple protocol, but what is the better way to remember it? Singing!

Do you remember the “Cisco regular expressions” tutorial? A regular expression is entered as part of a command and is a pattern made up of symbols, letters, and numbers that represent an input string for matching (or sometimes not matching). Matching the string to the specified pattern is called pattern matching. Pattern matching either succeeds or fails. If a regular expression can match two different parts of an input string, it will match the earliest part first. In this tutorial, I will explain how to use the ‘show’ command with the regular expression.

On September 23 2010, Cisco announced it has completed its acquisition of privately-held ExtendMedia, a leading provider of software-based Content Management Systems (CMS) that manage the entire lifecycle of video content through monetization for pay media and ad-supported business models. Based in Newton, Mass., with the majority of its employee base in Toronto, Canada, ExtendMedia enables Cisco to help service providers deliver multi-screen offerings as the market transitions to IP video. “As the video market transitions and consumers expect multi-screen engagement, service providers are enhancing their infrastructure to manage and deliver video to any device while providing a rich user [...]

VRF is an extension of IP routing that provides multiple routing instances. It provides a separate IP routing and forwarding table to each VPN and is used in concert with MP-iBGP (Multi-Protocol internal BGP) between provider equipment (PE) routers to provide Layer 3 MPLS-VPN. However, ML-Series VRF implementation is without MP-iBGP. With VRF Lite, the ML Series is considered a PE-extension or a customer equipment (CE)-extension. VRF Lite is considered a PE-extension since its has VRF (but without MP-iBGP), and it is considered a CE-extension since this CE can have multiple VRFs and serves many customer with one CE box.  [...]

Do you remember the Cisco I-Prize contest, an open, global innovation contest developed to encourage collaboration among entrepreneurs and help identify new potential billion-dollar business ideas for Cisco? On June 29 2010, Cisco announced the winner of its second I-Prize competition. A team of five university students from Mexico submitted the winning idea of a ‘Life Account‘ that gathers information about users through connected devices in the physical world and online data available in the virtual world. The winners receive a cash prize of $250,000.

Cisco New Zealand is again offering small to medium sized businesses the chance to win a total Communications Makeover and this year the prize package is doubled, offering $100,000 of Cisco solutions and deployment. The Cisco Communications Makeover is a chance for businesses to transform the way they operate and help them stay ahead of the competition. “New Zealand is a country of small-to-medium businesses,” says Geoff Lawrie, managing director, Cisco New Zealand.  “Many of those businesses already punch well above their weight with the commercial success they achieve from the size and resourcing of their business, but their growth [...]

Cisco announces its second Cisco I-Prize contest. In this open, global competition entrepreneurs submit proposals and collaborate to create the seed idea for Cisco’s next billion-dollar business. Idea submissions should fall in one of four categories: The Future of Work: New solutions that accelerate and change the way we do business The Connected Life: Technological inspirations that dramatically improve living conditions and disseminate culture New Ways to Learn: Next-generation solutions that transform when, where, and how people learn. The Future of Entertainment: New solutions that change how people play together