Cisco - Research and Open Innovation

Cisco has a broad portfolio of research interests and activities.

Gifts, Grants, and Sponsorships
Government Research Programs
Research Conferences & SIGs
Graduate & Undergraduate Student Programs
Co-Research with Customers, Partners, and Academic Institutions
Open Source Projects, Industry Consortia, Standards Bodies, and Working Groups
Research Interests
1. Networking is our core, and we are deeply interested in all related topics, as well as
adjacencies that drive change in the way networks need to operate. New networking
technologiesthings we are exploring in labs todayhave introduced a number of
interesting problems that must be solved if we are to realize their promise. Examples
include:
Challenges with data collection, transport, analysis, security, and performance in scaledout implementations of networked devices with high volumes of telemetry (e.g. in IoT
deployments)
Automation, usability/UX, and application/network interaction in programmable
networks (e.g. natural language processing to drive business rules, and intelligent
interpretation and presentation of network analytics)
New network coding schemes to improve throughput in fixed, wireless, and mobile
networks
Moving and distributing workloads across multiple software and hardware infrastructures
(automation, security, usability, intelligent placement, etc.)
2. Cisco is leading the industry in the transition to programmable networks, but hardware is
still a critical element to ensuring reliability, performance, and scalability; and getting more
value out of smaller and cheaper hardware is one of the challenges immediately ahead of us with
IoT deployments. As such, were still deeply interested in hardware! Here are a few examples of
things were interested in exploring:
Advanced memory technologies
Advancements in optical & silicon photonics
Improvement of energy consumption, power management, and thermal/cooling
technologies
Process, reliability, layout, circuit, architecture, simulation and performance of multi-gate
transistors
3. Some more in security:

 Impacts to network measurement and monitoring when new security technologies are
deployed
Security new network architectures, including software-based network infrastructure, IoT
deployments
Security across hybrid networks, and new methods for solving security challenges during
network migration
New techniques in applied cryptography
Secure storage
Predicting and mitigating security vulnerabilities in software components and systems
Securing wired & wireless sensor networks