Cisco has unveiled its Aggregation Services Router 1000 at the CeBIT show in Hanover designed for service provider and enterprise edge network deployment.

The networking firm said that the new router is purpose-built for edge networks and took over five years to develop at a cost of $250m.

The ASR 1000 Series is driven by the new QuantumFlow processor, an integrated and programmable router and service engine, and features software virtualisation to enable instant-on provisioning and simultaneous use of a wide range of service functionality.

These services include firewall, IPSec virtual private networks, deep-packet inspection and Session Border Control.

Cisco believes that embedding these features into a single appliance makes it easier to deploy and manage, as well as saving on capital costs and operations expenses.

"Next-generation networks will enable a broad range of services in a wide variety of combinations, many requiring high-quality, high-definition, bidirectional communication to meet customer demands," said Shin Hashomoto, executive vice president at NTT.

"In contrast to conventional best-effort approaches, we believe it will be necessary for the edge of network to perform dynamic quality control to flexibly and securely enable aggregation of traffic from broadband services and converged communications."

The Cisco ASR 1000 combines all the necessary service features into a single router platform, resulting in a substantial increase in IP forwarding performance, according to the networking giant.

The device can also simplify network design because a single router can be used in different hardware deployments and provide different services based on installed software.

The Cisco ASR 1000 series will be generally available in April 2008 in two, four and six rack unit sizes. Pricing starts at $35,000.