Ascend Expands Pipeline Family Combining Hub and Dial-Up Router in One Device; Pipeline 85 Addresses SOHO Market Need for Economical, All-in-One Solution for LAN-to-LAN and Intern
Business Wire via Dow Jones
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 1997--Ascend Communications, Inc.
(NASDAQ:ASND) today introduced the newest model in its Pipeline Series of CPE
dial-up routers, the Pipeline 85. Integrating an Ethernet hub with a
bridge/router, the Pipeline 85 gives small businesses and home offices a
compact, economical solution for dialing into a remote LAN or accessing the
Internet.
Available in North America For $1,095 (U.S. List Price), companies can install
a single CPE remote access device which gives them all of the following
capabilities: a four-port 10Base-T Ethernet hub; an Ethernet-to-ISDN
multi-protocol bridge/router; two analog ports to integrate telephone, modem or
fax transmissions over a single ISDN line; both Network Address Translation
(NAT) and DHCP server spoofing for flexible configuration of IP addresses;
dial-on-demand and bandwidth-on-demand technologies to maximize line efficiency
and usage; and built-in network management and security.
"We are aggressively expanding the Pipeline family to support our customers'
requirements for increasingly sophisticated dial-up capabilities," says Bert
Forbes, Ascend's Pipeline product manager. "Leveraging all the features and
functionality of the popular Pipeline 50 and 75 and with the addition of a
four-port Ethernet hub, the Pipeline 85 is designed around the needs of the SOHO
market, as well as remote access and telecommuting environments, where the
customer is looking for a single vendor solution for connecting multiple users
to a single ISDN line -- and then leveraging that transmission facility as
efficiently as possible."
The Pipeline 85 enables up to four devices to plug directly into the router
and share a single ISDN BRI line. For assigning IP addresses, the Pipeline 85
includes both Network Address Translation (NAT) and DHCP server spoofing. NAT
is a protocol which enables devices to dynamically share an IP address; DHCP is
the industry standard which the Pipeline 85 uses to assign IP addresses;
customers can use one or both technologies in concert.
For managing connections and bandwidth, the Pipeline 85 incorporates
dial-on-demand and a full complement of bandwidth management capabilities.
Dial-on-demand simplifies the process of connecting to the network by enabling
customers to establish up to eight pre-defined connection profiles; using these
profiles the Pipeline 85 automatically dials the destination number associated
with a given application. To manage bandwidth most efficiently, the Pipeline 85
incorporates bandwidth-on-demand which adds a second B-channel dynamically; the
Pipeline 85 also incorporates a user-configurable idle timer, to drop the
connection automatically when utilization falls below a certain threshold.
The Pipeline 85 offers built-in security and network management, and can be
equipped with Ascend's Secure Access Firewall for additional security features,
such as dynamic firewall, transparency, monitoring and logging.
Availability
The Pipeline 85 lists for $1095 (U.S.); orders may be placed immediately with
first customer shipments scheduled for August 29, 1997.
Note: The Pipeline 85 is available in North America only.
Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures and sells wide area
networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers
and corporate customers worldwide. For more information about Ascend and its
products, please visit the Ascend web site at ascend.com, or e-mail
info@ascend.com .
Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda
Calif., 94502. Phone 800/ASCEND4; Fax 510/814-2300.
CONTACT: Gallagher PR
Shannon Malliet, 510/747-2254
smalliet@ascend.com
08:12 EDT AUGUST 4, 1997
BW0073 AUG 04,1997 5:10 PACIFIC 08:10 EASTERN
:TICKER: ASND
:SUBJECT: TLCM CA
Copyright (c) 1997 Business Wire
Received by NewsEDGE/LAN: 8/4/97 7:33 AM |
