Cisco Systems announced the upcoming release of a new line of routers, called the ASR 9000 Series, meant to handle high-demand data loads.

"This platform is designed for IP [network] transformation and will be used as the carrier Ethernet transport foundation for video and mobility data growth," explained Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider technology group, also adding that the Cisco ASR 9000 has been specially optimized to deliver video and rich media at a far better quality than any other platform available on the market.

According to the company’s estimates, the routers are able to serve data at speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s and also are designed to serve around 1.2 million separate HD video streams at the same time. The systems will significantly improve the speed and efficiency for many high-demand data loads such as streaming HD video.

The development process demanded four years of intense research and also more than $200 million. The company’s officials are extremely pleased with the result and the success of the new product relies on their firm belief that over the next few years online video will become the biggest driver of global data communications. "With the ASR we are attempting to future-proof the network," explained Pankaj Patel, a Cisco senior vice president.

The new systems are scheduled for release at the beginning of 2009 and the starting price is estimated at $80,000. For now, the company’s officials stated that the new router is already being tested by several US and European ISP’s.