Nortel Networks Expands Passport Family Support for E-Business
BILLERICA, MA, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ - With a mix of new products and product enhancements, Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE:NT) has significantly expanded the e-business capability of its Passport multiservice IP (Internet Protocol) WAN (wide area network) switches.
Nortel Networks today unveiled the Passport 2430, a cost-effective solution for small and medium-sized businesses and large companies with remote branches. Other
announcements included Passport 4400 Release 4.0, which includes new voice-over-IP (VoIP) capabilities, and Passport 6400 Release 7.0, adding a new functional processor for enhanced transport of IP traffic over ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) backbone networks.
`The demand for more IP-based services in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer
transactions continues to grow rapidly,` said Bill Willis, vice-president of engineering for Interpath Communications, a North Carolina-based application service provider. `Nortel Networks is helping meet this demand by adding more IP-related capabilities to Passport and increasing Passport's potential to act as an e-business enabler.`
These capabilities increase Passport's support for e-business by lowering costs; enhancing reliability,
security and quality of service (QoS); and enabling businesses to offer customers a greater range of IP
services. They enhance Passport's ability to combine voice and data traffic over switched WAN services, and enable cost reductions by eliminating the need for mission-specific voice and data networks.
These capabilities also build on Nortel Networks' Open IP initiative by delivering open IP routing on today's platforms. Features such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing and IP quality of service enable customers to deploy the high-performance IP networks they need today. In addition, these solutions will be compatible with future high-performance Internet applications and devices employing
the Open IP source code.
`Nortel Networks is building a high-performance Internet,` said Edward Pillman, president, enterprise product portfolio, Nortel Networks. `Today's announcements represent another step toward making that vision a reality. By offering IP-related functionality and security features, the Passport family supports Nortel Networks' Open IP initiatives and helps make it easier to conduct e-business.`
The Passport 2430 multiservice access switch provides flexibility and high performance to businesses in a wide range of sizes and market niches. Small and medium-sized businesses can deploy the 2430 as the primary router, and it can serve large companies as a small branch office solution. E-business demands more and more bandwidth and speed, and the Passport 2430 helps provide these economically. The product offers cost savings through bandwidth management, as well as remote management and monitoring through Nortel Networks' industry-leading Optivity network management
platform. Also, the 2430 has 10MB and 100MB Ethernet LAN (local area network) connections, in addition to a wide variety of WAN interfaces.
Passport 4400 Release 4.0 adds VoIP support to the 4400's existing voice-over-Frame-Relay capability.
This enables forwarding of packetized voice traffic over IP networks including existing router infrastructures. This enables greater flexibility in forwarding voice or data traffic, and makes it easier for Passport to co-exist in existing router networks. Release 4.0 also includes enhanced IP traffic prioritization; support of the OSPF advanced routing protocol used for IP traffic; and a Web
browser-driven configuration tool that simplifies setup and support for Systems Network Architecture (SNA), enabling remote SNA devices to connect to the 4400 for WAN access.
The new ATM IP functional processor added by Passport 6400 Release 7.0 greatly enhances the performance of IP traffic routed over ATM. This is important because, while applications are converging upon IP within enterprise LAN and campus environments, most backbone networks are
expected to remain based on ATM for the foreseeable future. The new processor includes an integrated IP processing engine that enables new features improving the QoS of IP over ATM. This is particularly important for mission-critical business applications. In addition, consolidating and routing traffic over a switched ATM infrastructure is much less expensive than routing it over a series of leased lines.
Nortel Networks is a global leader in telephony, data, wireless and wireline solutions for the Internet.
The Company had 1998 revenues of US$17.6 billion and serves carrier, service provider and enterprise
customers globally. Today, Nortel Networks is creating a high-performance Internet that is more reliable and faster than ever before. It is redefining the economics and quality of networking and the Internet through Unified Networks that promise a new era of collaboration, communications and
commerce. Visit us at www.nortelnetworks.com
Contact: Carter Cromwell, Nortel Networks, 408-495-2050, carterc@nortelnetworks.com; Jeff Ferry, Nortel Networks, 703-712-8339,
jferry@nortelnetworks.com |
