To: TWC who wrote (25417 ) 12/3/1997 7:13:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to
-ASCEND: Tolly group confirms high throughput & linear scalability of GRF Multigigabit
Presswire - December 03, 1997 14:59
ASND V%M2 P%M2PR
M2 PRESSWIRE-3 December 1997-ASCEND: The Tolly group confirms high throughput and linear scalability of Ascend's GRF Multigigabit Router at OC-12 speeds (C)1994-97 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
-- Ascend's GRF multigigabit router with OC-12 Module demonstrates top performance in independent test
Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASND) today announced results of independent performance tests conducted by The Tolly Group of Ascend's GRF multigigabit router. These tests demonstrated that the GRF 1600 with OC-12 media cards forwarded data from 16 simultaneous ATM OC-12 modules, each filling 100 percent of usable OC-12 bandwidth. According to the test results, each of the GRF 1600's 16 media interface cards forwarded an average of 295,000, 64-byte IP packets per second to a single IP destination delivering an aggregate throughput of 4.7 million pps. The GRF 400 demonstrated virtually identical throughput from each of its four media cards. Test results also showed that performance scaled linearly from one OC-12 module up to 16 modules in a fully loaded GRF 1600 and to four modules in the GRF 400. The Tolly Group is a strategic consulting firm that provides Fortune 1000 companies vendor-independent assessments of critical corporate technologies.
The Tolly Group also tested the ability of the GRF 1600 to handle forwarding to varying destination addresses to reflect the dynamics of actual network conditions. The GRF 1600 maintained its aggregate throughput and scaled linearly as in the single-destination IP packet tests. For one data stream throughput was 295,604 pps, for two streams it was 553,771 pps, and for 16 streams it was 4,480,309 pps (95.2 percent of the single-destination IP throughput). For all single-destination tests and random-destination tests data streams originating from a media card passed through the backplane to another media card.
"We sent streams of traffic through the GRF 1600 until each of the 16 modules was operating at maximum throughput," said Kevin Tolly, president of The Tolly Group. "Fully loaded, the GRF 1600 routed 100 percent of the usable OC-12 bandwidth forall modules. We also approximated a real-world scenario by forwarding packets to varying Class C IP destination addresses, and found no significant degradation in the performance of the GRF 1600 or GRF 400."
The linear scalability of the GRF 400 and the GRF 1600, confirmed by this independent test, is the result of Ascend's multigigabit routing architecture. This design combines a 16 Gb/s media-independent switch with distributed IP forwarding and route management giving network service providers the enabling technology to route IP at unprecedented packet rates over ATM OC-12.
Ascend is the only vendor offering ATM OC-12 support on its multigigabit router. This is important for network service providers (NSPs) because of the tremendous demand to add capacity in their backbone networks to support more users and higher-speed access and backbone technologies. With the GRF multigigabit router, NSPs can optimize the use of expensive OC-12 bandwidth while offering consistent high-performance network services to their customers.
Because the GRF 1600 can maintain OC-12 speeds and supports up to 16 modules with no performance degradation, NSPs can now meet their growing demands simply by adding an ATM OC-12 media card. This avoids the cost of forklift upgrades and time-consuming installation and testing.
Providing 16 media card slots in under 23 inches of vertical rack space, the GRF 1600 is the highest density multigigabit router available today. By deploying a high-density OC-12 solution, NSPs can purchase a single system to achieve their capacity needs. They can now consolidate lower-speed traffic onto one high-speed connection economically while conserving valuable space in their POPs.
"We are extremely pleased with the performance test results," said Dick Kachelmeyer, product marketing director for Ascend's Core Systems Division. "Such independent tests continue to validate what our customers are telling us about their real-world experiences -- the architecture of the GRF is delivering the uncompromised throughput that is required for today's IP backbone. We haven't just claimed top performance at OC-12 speeds...we've already delivered it."
About The Tolly Group
The Tolly Group provides strategic consulting, independent testing, and industry analysis. Fortune 500 companies look to The Tolly Group vendor-independent assessment of leading-edge technologies.
About Ascend Communications
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.
CONTACT: The Tolly Group Tel: +1 800 933 1699 Fax: +1 732 528 1888 e-mail: info@tolly.com WWW: www.tolly.com, Ascend Tel: +1 800 ASCEND4 Fax: +1 510 814 2300 e-mail: info@ascend.com
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