ATM switch handles video..............
Newbridge/Siemens announcement
Reuters Story - August 20, 1997 15:40
SIEMENS AND NEWBRIDGE NETWORKS ANNOUNCE MAJOR ENHANCEMENTS TO THE
MAINSTREETXPRESS 36150 ATM ACCESS SWITCH
Enhanced MainStreetXpress 36150 Access Switch -- the most flexible ATM
access solution on the market -- offers advanced QoS and traffic
management for legacy and new video applications
KANATA, Ont., and MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 20 /CNW/ - The Public
Communication Networks Group of Siemens AG and Newbridge Networks today
announced significant enhancements to the Siemens / Newbridge
MainStreetXpress(TM) 36150 Access Switch, the industry's leading asynchronous
transfer mode (ATM) access switch. The enhancements include a new switch core,
advanced traffic management and shaping features, as well as additional
interfaces. The enhanced switch extends the end-to-end traffic management and
Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities of the MainStreetXpress portfolio which
includes the MainStreetXpress 36190 Core Switch and MainStreetXpress 36170
Multiservices Swtich, all fully manageable by the MainStreetXpress 46020
Network Manager.
The new switch core features an eight-port ATM switching card which
provides twice the previous capacity to dramatically reduce network costs.
Superior traffic management capabilities and the support of up to seven
classes of service enable service providers to increase revenues through
differentiated customer services and further reduce network costs. With 18
different interfaces, the MainStreetXpress 36150 switch is the most versatile
access platform on the market, supporting both legacy applications and new
video applications.
Advanced traffic management features such as Early Packet Discard (EPD)
enable the switch to eliminate unnecessary cells, preventing network
congestion and resulting in optimum utilization of the entire ATM network.
This feature is especially important for transparent local area network (LAN)
services, one of the key applications for ATM. The MainStreetXpress 36150
switch also supports dual leaky buckets, Peak and Sustainable cell rate
policing (PCR and SCR), Cell Delay Variation Tolerance (CDVT), and selective
cell discard-based Cell Loss Priority (CLP) processing.
With these enhancements, the MainStreetXpress 36150 switch supports
Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate-real time (VBR-RT), Variable Bit
Rate-non real time (VBR-nRT), Available Bit Rate (ABR), Unspecified Bit Rate
(UBR), and two additional user-definable service classes. Support of these
seven classes of service means that users can create multiple classes of
service within a single user domain, making the switch highly effective in
even extremely complex networks. As more services become available, multiple
classes of service will play an increasingly important role in managing
networks efficiently.
The enhanced MainStreetXpress 36150 switch also features new interfaces to
support advanced video applications. The addition of a D1 serial digital
interface and a National Television System Committee (NTSC) /Phase Alternating
Line (PAL) interface enables on-line video transport of footage for editing
and broadcasting of television programs and movies. Earlier this year,
Newbridge Networks announced integrated MPEG-2 compression capability on the
switch to support studio-quality video while using significantly less
bandwidth.
"We used the MainStreetXpress 36150 Access Switch in 1995 for one of the
world's first successful video phone/ video mail applications. Now we're even
better equipped to provide our clients economical and secure video data
transport over ATM. We are thrilled to implement the new capabilities of the
switch in a broad range of applications," stated Winston Johnson, Chief
Executive Officer, Winsonic Enterprises & WDCSN Smart Network. "The
MainStreetXpress 36150 switch enables us to meet Hollywood's growing demands
for major television production projects, such as the innovative work we're
doing with post-production giant Laser Pacific Media Corp., including
transporting dailies and digital data through our teleport hubs located
domestically and around the world."
The WDCSN Smart Network is an industry leader providing full
telecommunications services, Internet and private network solutions, store and
forward services, video phone, and implementation of ATM-based applications
within local and wide area networks.
The enhanced MainStreetXpress 36150 Access Switch will enter service
trials towards the end of the year and will be generally available in early
1998.
The Public Communication Networks Group of Siemens AG (Munich, Germany)
and Newbridge Networks (Kanata, Canada), two of the world leaders in ATM,
formed a strategic networking alliance in 1996 to provide carriers worldwide
with the most comprehensive and advanced ATM solution set. With this
agreement, the two companies have unified their ATM product lines under the
MainStreetXpress brand and assembled the industry's most extensive ATM
research and development operation -- more than 1,500 engineers in five
countries. In North America, Siemens Public Communication Networks Group is
represented by Siemens Stromberg-Carlson in Boca Raton, Florida.
/For further information: Newbridge Networks Contacts: U.S./Latin America:
Nancy Ward, (703) 736-5083, nancyward(at)qmail.us.newbridge.com; Siemens
Contact: Alice Andors, (202) 434-4820, alice.andors(at)sc.siemens.com; Canada:
Paul Goyette, (613) 591-3600 x3319, paulgoyette(at)newbridge.com; Financial
Analysts: John Lawlor, (613) 591-3600, johnlawlor(at)newbridge.com/ |
