Ascend Announces Support for New V.pcm Modem Standard
Wednesday February 4, 7:39 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Ascend Announces Support for New
V.pcm Modem Standard
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 1998--
Ascend and Rockwell Conducting 'Real-world' Interoperability
Testing With Major Modem Vendors, Internet Service Providers;
Will Ship No-Cost Software Upgrades Following Completion of
Testing
Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASND - news)
the leader in deployment of 56K ports with approximately 2
million ports deployed worldwide, today announced it has
created an interoperability testing program to support the
V.pcm standard for high-speed analog modems. The
standard, expected to be determined, and given a formal
numeric designation this week at a meeting of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva,
Switzerland, will enable any communications products --
modems or access concentrators -- to interoperate at 56,000
bits-per-second (bps), the highest speed available today for
analog communications.
Ascend and its Service Provider customers, along with
client-side modem vendors, will drive a comprehensive
testing program that will ensure V.pcm interoperability.
Ascend supports a large installed base of WAN Access
Switches in the Internet Service Provider market, and also
has deployed approximately 2 million 56K ports to date.
The company will ship no-cost software upgrades once the
interoperability testing has been completed.
''With the approval of the V.pcm standard, the market can
continue to move forward which is good for customers,
vendors, and most importantly, end-users,'' said Kurt
Bauer, vice president of product management for Ascend's
Access Products Group. ''This program will ensure that the
benefits of the V.pcm standard can be realized through an
aggressive but well-managed rollout plan. Ascend plans to
deploy the V.pcm standard as rapidly as possible throughout
the MAX family of products without sacrificing product
stability or multi-vendor compatibility.''
''Rockwell provides end-to-end interoperability with
Ascend, and Rockwell's large installed base of client
modems. Rockwell continues to work closely with Ascend
to ensure timely availability of V.pcm code incorporating all
of the ITU requirements,'' said Raouf Halim, vice president
and general manager of Rockwell Semiconductor Systems
Network Access Division. ''Ascend has long-term
relationships with key ISPs and Carriers. With these
partners, Rockwell and Ascend will enable widespread and
rapid interoperability over the broadest deployment of
56Kbps ports and client modems across the industry.''
Interoperability Testing Program
The Ascend V.pcm Interoperability Testing Program has
two components: testing for client-side modem vendors,
and testing within service providers.
Point of Presence (PoP) Testing. Ascend is creating a
test PoP that will facilitate testing for client-side
modem vendors similar to the testing performed for
K56flex products. These vendors will be able to dial in
to the PoP and ensure the interoperability of their
modems with Ascend's MAX and MAX TNT WAN
Access Switches. Since many leading service
providers use MAX products, interoperability with
Ascend equipment is an important stamp-of-approval
for modem manufacturers.
Service provider Testing. Ascend will also be working
closely with its key service provider customers to test
V.pcm in their networks. The company will ship beta
code to these customers, and will work closely with
them to test interoperability of the code before they
deploy it widely within their networks.
The company said that the program will be implemented
beginning this week and will be rolled out to customers over
the next two weeks. Ascend will ship MAX and MAX TNT
WAN Access Switches loaded with V.pcm code to their
service provider partners as soon as possible so they can
test dial-up connections in their own network environments.
Ascend will closely monitor the testing and will make
V.pcm code generally available only after ensuring it is
interoperable and reliable.
''Ascend is a big part of our service infrastructure, and we
expect this kind of leadership from the company that, with
its MAX and MAX TNT WAN Access Switches really
helped us build our business,'' said Kevin Barry, Senior
POP Manager at Epoch. ''We are working with Ascend to
quickly set up our interoperability testing, and are confident
that following that we will be able to upgrade our modems
in short order. We are very pleased that Ascend's attention
to quality and smooth deployment will provide tremendous
benefits to our end-user customers.'' |
