notredame --
I'm also encouraged by Ascend's cc.
The following article, taken from the Ascend thread, indicates DataQuest doesn't put NN's RAC products high on its list. I hope someone points this out to their marketing department.
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Concentrators may become standard if ATM picks up steam and port prices fall [ASND reference]
Excerpt: "ATM access concentrators, which have much faster backplane speeds and support many similar services, are poised to steal significant market share from IADs as early as next year, according to a recent report from Dataquest.
wcmh.com./lantimes/98/98apr/804a037a.html
By Jill Marts Lodwig
When network managers want to migrate to carriers' new service offerings without revamping their infrastructures, many turn to integrated access devices. With an IAD in place, managers can continue to use older equipment while taking advantage of the latest high-speed access technologies.
IADs terminate user traffic from PBXs, LANs, front-end processors, and video codecs and trunk that information upstream in point-to-point T-1 links to larger backbone switches. They support frame relay, time-division multiplexing (TDM), as well as ATM traffic over a TDM backplane and are optimized for voice-intensive traffic.
Because IADs can combine voice, video, and data from a single platform, managers of both carrier and enterprise networks find them easier and more cost-effective to manage than multiple application devices that terminate traffic on one another. Currently, no other equipment provides as much bang for the buck, but another device may soon encroach on IAD territory.
ATM access concentrators, which have much faster backplane speeds and support many similar services, are poised to steal significant market share from IADs as early as next year, according to a recent report from Dataquest.
Like IADs, ATM access concentrators take traffic from PBXs, LANs, front-end processors, and video codecs and transport it upstream to higher-powered switches. Unlike IADs, they convert traffic to industry-standard ATM cells and send it at 1Gbps backplane speeds to ATM switches for transport across an ATM backbone. ATM access concentrators are optimized for data-intensive transport at higher speeds, including multiple T-3 and OC-3 lines.
But widespread success for access concentrators hinges on two uncertainties: ATM spreading from the carrier backbone to the enterprise wide area and the price per port falling to competitive levels.
Although deployed primarily by carriers at the network edge, access concentrators could become the de facto standard for consolidating voice, video, and data in enterprise networks if carriers continue to embrace ATM at the network core. In that case, observers say that the technology will reach the edge of, and even penetrate, the enterprise wide area. Gartner Group Inc. predicts that by the year 2000, 90 percent of large corporations will have ATM deployed somewhere in their networks.
According to George Hunt, director and principal analyst at Dataquest in San Jose, Calif., carriers' commitment to ATM will greatly influence such an increase."We like to think that user demands drive carrier service offerings, but often it's the other way around," says Hunt.
Carriers favor ATM because it lets them simplify their networks while dramatically reducing operating costs. ATM is the only infrastructure that can support all of their service offerings, including voice, video, and data, as well as high transmission speeds and quality of service.
Until recently, carriers used prohibitively expensive full-fledged backbone ATM switches in the core and at the network edge to deploy ATM access. But because dedicated ATM access concentrators, which are installed at the network edge, cost only one-third as much as ATM backbone switches, carriers can use them to make ATM profitable for themselves and reasonably priced for their
customers.
In addition to letting carriers provide general-purpose ATM services, access concentrators enable streamlined ATM offerings such as Internet access, frame-relay network expansion, transparent LAN services, and out-of-region network expansion.
Several vendors, including 3Com Corp., Ascend Communications Inc., and most recently Cisco Systems Inc., offer dedicated ATM access concentrators that usually target service providers or enterprise users. Their prices vary from $10,000 to $90,000, depending on their support for network and user interfaces, backplane speeds, and expansion capabilities.
ATM access concentrators and IADs require a complementary device at the edges of the customer's network and the carrier's central office. The standard configuration is now an access concentrator at the carrier network edge, which receives traffic that has been trunked upstream from IADs at the customer premises.
The changing environment is reflected in the way CompuWorld Inc.--a regional service provider that offers Internet access, hosting, voice over IP, and video over IP--is completing the installation of its ATM backbone network. The company is deploying Sentient Network Inc.'s Ultimate access concentrators at its central offices and plans to install either IADs or ATM access concentrators at customer premises.
Jim Parks, president of CompuWorld in Sacramento, Calif., says that his company is steering away from IADs at customer premises. "IADs make sense when you have mostly solid voice traffic and very little data. But that's changing," he says. "Price points on ATM access concentrators are coming down quickly, and the vendors are incorporating more and more capabilities."
Even though they're becoming less expensive and experts predict wide-scale deployment in enterprise networks, access concentrators are currently installed only by companies that run some level of ATM in their networks.
The Panhandle Information Network, a consortium of more than 70 K-12 school districts, libraries, city and county governments, and health-care organizations, recently connected 55 school districts through its ATM network. The consortium is using ADC Kentrox AAC-3 and AAC-1 access concentrators on its premises to provide Internet access and videoconferencing across 26 counties in western Texas.
"Using these devices to run our ATM protocol over our regional carrier's existing TDM network lets us utilize our bandwidth without replacing core access equipment and substantially reduces our cost," says Rusty Owens, project manager and director of technical services at Panhandle's regional education service center in Amarillo, Texas.
Its central site houses VTEL video equipment and four access concentrators for videoconferencing. Three AAC-3s link to the local carrier's TDM network, which then connects over T-1 lines to 24 Panhandle sites. The fourth access concentrator is used to connect to other sites housing video equipment and Internet gateways. Each site has videoconferencing equipment, a router for Internet access, and an AAC-1, with which Kentrox targets the IAD market.
Although few carriers doubt that ATM can simplify their networks, not every company is as convinced as Panhandle that ATM is the answer for wide-area deployment. And that attitude may spell trouble for wholesale acceptance of access concentrators.
"Companies just started implementing frame relay in great numbers, so they're hesitant to embrace ATM," says Dataquest's Hunt. "IADs are popular for TDM and frame relay."
GTE Network Services, a local exchange carrier based in Dallas, was an early adopter of carrier-based services delivered through IADs. The company uses Premisys' IMAC 8000 IADs to provide network services to small and medium-sized customers who need to integrate voice and data.
"Integrated access devices let us deliver a variety of services competitively over a single or several T-1 circuits," says Steven Dekany, senior product manager.
Dekany says he decided against using ATM access concentrators. "Their price range is three to four times higher than IADs. Since price is the key issue at the moment, we're using the more traditional device."
Nevertheless, Dekany is keeping a close eye on access concentrators and does not rule out the possibility that his company will eventually deploy them.
But if more carriers and enterprise network managers migrate to ATM, access concentrators may be the only choice left.
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Clearly, Newbridge Networks has RAC products as their affiliate, Advanced Computer Communications, recently won an award for its remote access concentrator:
newbridge.com
In the Carrier Class remote access concentrator category, ACC's TigrisT product was selected for its "reliability, scalability, flexibility, manageability and affordability". The industry's first Integrated Access Platform, the Tigris remote access concentrator defines a new class of products that combines dial-in, dedicated access, comprehensive LAN/WAN protocol support and robust routing capabilities on a single Network Equipment Building Standard (NEBS)-compliant platform. Tigris provides Internet service providers, carriers and corporations with a single solution for a large number of remote sites and users. With its modular, scalable and cost-effective architecture, Tigris enables these organizations to consolidate access lines and equipment to meet a broad range of user requirements.>>>
newbridge.com
<<< Tigris Integrated Access Platform from ACC
The industry's first remote access concentrator combining dial-in dedicated access, comprehensive LAN/WAN protocol support and robust routing capabilities on a single platform.
What Data Communications wrote:
"...A single Tigris can grow from a modest 3-slot chassis with 62 dial-up modem ports to a more substantial 10-slot chassis with 1,620 ports. What's more, multiple RACs can work together as a distributed system, creating a virtual RAC of almost limitless size. That means carriers can offer their customers a pool of virtual dial-up ports, which can be dynamically assigned to individual concentrators on demand. Customers don't need to agonize over the ports they need in each location, and carriers can configure everything centrally - all while offering different qualities of service.">>>>
NN's 3Com partnership also provides a remote access concentrator:
newbridge.com
In addition to this, Siemens and NN bought RadNet, an Israeli company with access products:
newbridge.com
newbridge.com
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"The joint acquisition of RADNET with Siemens, which we announced earlier this week, strengthens our ability to address the enterprise customers' requirements for broadband network access. This will further solidify our position as one of the premier suppliers in the WAN market for both corporate and carrier customers. We will continue to enhance this position by deepening and strengthening our relationships with other industry leaders and by focusing the Company's resources to address the robust demand for our broadband networking solutions." >>> |
