Cascade eases network congestion with new ATM flow control processors
Business Wire - May 19, 1997 05:59
FINANCIAL CASCADE-COMM CSCC MASSACHUSETTS COMED COMPUTERS ELECTRONICS TELECOMMUNICATIONS V%BW P%BW
Business Editors
WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 19, 1997--
Industry's Only Solution To Enable Carrier-class Service Level Agreements
Cascade Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:CSCC) today is announcing a new family of processor cards that provide real time flow control to manage traffic jams in ATM networks, and allow network service providers to offer the industry's only per-connection, service-level guarantees for non-realtime services.
The Cascade Flow Control Processor (FCP) family of cards for the CBX 500 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch is now shipping and available for ATM speeds ranging from T1/E1 (1.54/2.04 Mbps) to OC12/STM-4 (622 Mbps). The FCP cards aggregate all knowledge of network congestion onto the switch at the edge of the wide area network and automatically adjust the flow of traffic to ease downstream congestion. The cards are the only solution currently available which enables network service providers to offer customers a per-connection, guaranteed minimum transmission rate. This rate will be maintained even when heavy congestion conditions exist.
"Network service providers, out of necessity, keep ATM networks oversubscribed in an effort to fully utilize resources for maximum competitiveness. By performing effective flow control, the FCP cards will enable them to ensure customers fair throughput even when networks get very busy," said Chris Baldwin, Director of ATM Product Marketing at Cascade Communications Corp. "The FCP cards enable service providers to offer cost-effective service-level agreements for ATM data services and minimum cell rates per-connection for guaranteed levels of performance suited to customer needs."
When networks get congested, the FCP cards assure fair throughput across all circuits by preventing a single circuit from seizing all the bandwidth. In contrast, ATM services without flow control do not assure fair throughput. The FCP cards automatically throttle back user traffic proportionately on a per-circuit basis in accordance with customers' service-level agreements.
The Cascade Flow Control Processors ensure service quality and fair throughput for all user connections by means of three mechanisms:
-- Rate-Based Flow Control -- Per Virtual Circuit Queuing -- Early Packet Discard
Rate-Based Flow Control automatically determines if traffic volumes are too high and therefore are causing congestion. It then automatically slows traffic or discards packets on a per-virtual-circuit basis, allowing service providers to manage the traffic flow and adjust rates fairly. In heavy congestion, Cascade's UBR+ (Unspecified Bit Rate plus), a per-circuit service-level, guarantees minimum cell rate and fair throughput. In the absence of congestion, the circuit can transmit at its peak cell rate and in mild congestion at its allowable cell rate. This ensures non-realtime connections guaranteed bandwidth and buffering in heavy congestion, fair share of network resources in mild congestion, and high throughput when congestion is removed from the network.
Per Virtual Circuit Queuing ensures fair throughput by allocating memory buffers independently to each virtual circuit so that service providers are able to control transmit rates on a per-circuit basis. Early Packet Discard (EPD) controls cell loss during congestion to improve throughput. At the onset of congestion, before actual buffer overflow occurs, all cells of the current packet are admitted to the queue, but all cells of the next packet are discarded. This eliminates scattering of cell loss over multiple connections. The FCP cards implement EPD on a per-virtual-circuit basis. This maintains fairness in the network by focusing cell loss in connections that are attempting to use more than their fair share of bandwidth.
"Cascade's Flow Control system is a cost-effective, real-world approach to delivering deterministic ATM data services," said Vijay Lewis, Senior Engineer in Data Engineering at WorldCom, Inc. "Customers are demanding service-level guarantees and this product enables such services."
The FCP family is based on an option within the ATM Forum Traffic Management 4.0 (TM 4.0) standard that makes it possible for a network service provider to offer per-virtual-circuit flow control today. The FCP family prices range from $35,000 to $65,000.
About Cascade Communications Corp.
Cascade Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:CSCC) is at the forefront of broadband data communications with its family of scalable, carrier-class Frame Relay, ATM, IP and Remote Access switching products. Used by public carriers and Internet service providers worldwide, Cascade products are forming the foundation of the public network infrastructure for global communications. Cascade is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, USA, with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia/Pacific. For more information about Cascade and its products, please visit the company's web site at casc.com .
CONTACT: Cascade Communications Corp.
Press Contact:
Lucia F. Graziano (lgraziano@casc.com)
508/952-1291
or
Investor Contact:
Suzanne M. DuLong (sdulong@casc.com)
508/952-1652
REPEATS: New York 212-752-9600 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-236-4266 or
800-225-2030; SF 415-986-4422 or 800-227-0845; LA 310-820-9473
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