Cisco Systems Plans More Expansion

Cisco Systems, the world’s largest maker of Internet equipment, has moved into new offices near UC Irvine and plans to expand its local networking research team in the next year.

The company, which works on high-speed Internet access technologies, set up a small research office nearly three years ago after it acquired a router company called Newport Systems. The team, at the time, was about 45 people, representatives said.

But over time, the group has grown to 110 and is focusing on building cable, wireless and digital subscriber-line products for the home. Cisco hopes to add another 100 engineers by next fall, said Hoss Christensen, senior director of Cisco’s DSL business unit.

The new offices, a 63,440-square-foot building in the University Research Park in Irvine, enable Cisco to have “close access to UCI, student interns and graduate hires.” The San Jose-based company declined to disclose what it paid for the new facilities.