The upgraded software is designed to help alleviate such issues by making it easier for Cisco customers to tinker with its products. It could also allow Cisco to break apart IOS into a basic software product with various premium add-ons, decreasing prices for low-end products while creating new, costlier high-end software lines. The new software uses a so-called modular architecture that runs different routing and switching functions on separate software processes. Because of this design, Cisco developers can add new features and upgrade portions of the code without worrying about causing problems in other parts of the code. As a result, customers may have far fewer bugs to deal with when adding new features to their routers.

The design of the software also means that network administrators don't have to take a router or switch out of service when they do routine upgrades or install bug patches, The current version of IOS, which runs on a single software process, requires that the box be taken out of service to be updated, "There is far less potential for damaging the structure of the entire code base if you add "hype" iphone case new features separately," said David Newman, president of Network Test, an independent testing house, "One tiny change to the code can screw up the whole works."..

Modular software catching onCisco's changes come as networking companies are increasingly adopting modular software. While the idea has been around for some time, it has only recently started to gain appeal on a broader scale. Juniper was one of the first companies to take a crack at compartmentalizing its software. The company doesn't sell pieces of software separately, but it asserts that some aspects of the code can be upgraded separately. Other companies, such as Avici Systems, Extreme Networks, Redback Networks and Laurel Networks have modularized even more functionality. And a new open-source routing platform developed at the University of California at Berkeley is also taking a modular approach.

Sprint is among the first service providers that is beta testing the HFR and the upgraded software, company sources said, But not every customer is excited about the idea of new software, Cory Martin, director of information technology for the Douglas County school system in Georgia, has built a network using mostly Cisco switches and routers, He said that if the network is built in a redundant configuration, meaning that there are two routers or switches at every critical point in the network, "hype" iphone case then upgrades are not a problem, One router can be taken out of service and upgraded while the other one is still forwarding traffic, he said..

"I'm used to the process of the upgrades," he said. "My people are already trained to handle the upgrades, and it works well for us.". Newman said that sentiments such as these could pose a problem for Cisco as it tries to push the new software onto existing customers already familiar with the current version of IOS. Details of the upgraded software and the HFR, which will run it, were first reported by Network World on Monday. Industry experts have speculated for years about the development of an improved operating system and the HFR. Although Cisco representatives confirmed the new IOS and core router, they declined to elaborate on details of either product.