Cisco’s acquisition spree continues as the company announced today its intent to acquire Cariden, a supplier fo network planning, design and traffic management solutions. Cisco will pay about $141 million for the company.

Cisco says the acquisition will allow telecommunications service providers to enhance visibility, programmability and efficiency of converged networks.

“The Cariden acquisition reinforces Cisco’s commitment to offering service providers the technologies they need to optimize and monetize their networks, and ultimately grow their businesses,” said Surya Panditi, SVP and GM of Cisco’s Service Provider Networking Group. “Given the widespread convergence of IP and optical networks, Cariden’s technology will help carriers more efficiently manage bandwidth, network traffic and intelligence. This acquisition signals the next phase in Cisco’s packet and optical convergence strategy and further strengthens our ability to lead this market transition in networking.”

Cariden employees will be integrated into Cisco’s Service Provider Networking Group, and report to Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of the company’s Software and Applications Group.

The deal is, of course, subject to closing conditions. Cisco expects the deal to be closed in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2013.