FORE consistently rated top in ATM, some new products info:
Multi-peer groups PNNI, Distributed LANE, MPOA and VPN support
are all very important for Enterprise and SP networks.
VPN market segment for network equipment alone is going
to be 5 to 6 billion $ 2 yrs from now.
New ForeThought 5.0 Features
ATM Forum PNNI 1.0 (Multi-Peer Group):
PNNI provides much of the intelligence in ATM networks by enabling the
construction of large networks through dynamic discovery and routing of ATM
connections. FORE led the industry with a pre-standard implementation in early
1995. Now, ATM Forum compliant ForeThought 5.0 PNNI continues to lead
the industry with critical extensions including the industry's only multi-peer group
implementation, which allows networks to scale up to thousands of ATM switches.
Other vendors support single peer group implementations, severely limiting the size
of the network.
Distributed LAN Emulation:
Distributed LAN Emulation extends the LANE 1.0 specification by providing
load-sharing redundant LES and BUS services to support each Emulated LAN.
This provides greater scalability and reliability for any vendor's LANE 1.0, LANE
2.0 or MPOA adapters and uplinks, and allows customers to build distributed
workgroups by giving each cluster of users in an ELAN a local LES and BUS.
Distributed LAN Emulation includes LANE 2.0 extensions for the configuration
and advertisement of MPOA clients.
ATM Forum MPOA:
ForeThought 5.0 supports the ATM Forum MPOA specification, which delivers
low-latency, high capacity IP switching. MPOA delivers the networking industry's
only standards-based Layer 3 switching by integrating IP routing with the line-rate
switching performance of ATM. The ForeThought 5.0 implementation includes
per-flow shortcut thresholds to improve performance and MPOA device
management via ForeView VLAN manager, a graphical interface supporting
advanced network management across all FORE products.
Enhanced Network Security:
ForeThought 5.0 increases network security with a suite of new features.
ForeThought Secure device management prevents unauthorized access of
ForeRunner switches. Multi-peer group PNNI lets the network administrator
advertise public resources to external areas, but limits access to private resources.
Call screening, based on ATM addresses, helps support Virtual Private Networks
(VPNs) across an ATM infrastructure, allowing network managers to build flexible
VPNs even when sharing common resources. ForeThought Distributed LAN
Emulation services allow network managers to enforce configurable ELAN access
at the LES and BUS, even when clients bypass the LECS. |
