May 18, 1998, TechWeb News
Bay To Enhance Key Routing
Platform -- Faster co-processor for Backbone
Node to let more traffic through WAN links
By Monua Janah
Bay Networks Inc. this week will preview enhancements
to its flagship routing platform. First up for the Backbone
Node router is a faster co-processor that will let customers
squeeze more traffic through WAN connections.
The faster co-processor for the BN, which is widely used
in the core of enterprise networks, will ship next month. In
1999, Bay plans to offer a PowerPC-based processor that
will let the BN support Gigabit Ethernet LAN interfaces.
Bay also plans to make several upgrades to its routing
software. The next release-BayRS 12.20, due in June-will
let customers set up several virtual LANs. These are
groups of users configured logically regardless of their
location.
BayRS 13.10, to be introduced in 1999, will have
enhanced security and traffic-prioritization features. It will
be followed by BayRS 13.20, which will have additional
traffic-management and Systems Network Architecture
improvements.
Analysts say the BN complements Bay's Accelar line of
route switches, introduced last year. "If all you're doing is
LAN-to-LAN connections, then the hardware-based route
switches are good," says Dave Passmore, president of
NetReference Inc., a network consulting firm. "But they're
not good at managing the LAN-WAN boundary, at
speed-matching, and at handling complex [technologies]
like frame relay and ATM. That's where you need the
software-based router."
Union Pacific Railroad is evaluating the Accelar and
gigabit route switches from other vendors for the core of
its LAN but plans to keep its Bay routers for handling
WAN and VLAN connectivity. Brett Frank- enberger, a
telecommunications engineer at Union Pacific, says he
looks forward to the Gigabit Ethernet and VLAN support.
Neither the Accelar nor the BN uses the Route Switch
Processor, introduced in 1997 as the foundation of Bay's
future route-switching products. Says Passmore, "I think
it's pretty clear they're shelving that."
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