In a Thursday announcement, networking giant Cisco Systems revealed that it is planning to purchase California-based network traffic-management software maker Cariden Technologies, in a cash deal worth nearly $141 million.

According to the Cisco announcement, the staff of the privately-held Cariden - which was founded in 2001 - will be integrated into Cisco's Service Provider Networking Group, which is headed by Shailesh Shukla, VP and general manager, Software and Applications Group.

With Cariden's offering for the telecom service providers including network planning, design and traffic tools, Bloomberg's Lisa Rapaport said in a recent report that the acquisition - the third acquisition announced by Cisco this month - will help Cisco gain tools which enable wireless providers to improve the speed as well as efficiency of their networks.

The advantage of the Cariden acquisition for Cisco can be gauged from the fact that the networking biggie has stated that an increasing number of its service provider customers are converging their Internet Protocol (IP) and optical networks to tackle the exploding Internet and mobile traffic growth, which is likely to witness a four-fold increase by 2016.

Noting that the Cariden acquisition will give Cisco the advantage of offering service providers a number of ways to handle the projected growth of Internet traffic in the coming years, Forbes' Eric Savitz said that the deal will, as per Cisco's statement, "allow providers to enhance the visibility, programmability and efficiency of their converged networks, while improving service velocity."