This document has discussed how photonics, protection, protocols, packets, and provisioning insert into the metro edge, metro core, and long-haul and extended-long-haul segments. It is important to remember that the Cisco innovations are ongoing and that legacy equipment will not disappear over night. The enterprise and service providers still need to protect and provide existing services when migrating or evolving their current architecture offerings. In addition, service providers will need to take advantage of the existing infrastructure. The focus on network evolution is paramount to profitability of providers with existing network and operations management infrastructure.

Figure 8. Cisco's Coment Technical Innovations
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