MAX 6000 WAN access switch was rated "Best In Test"
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ALAMEDA, Calif.----April 24, 1998--Ascend
Communications, Inc., (NASDAQ:ASND) today announced that its new MAX 6000 WAN access switch was rated "Best In Test" in Business
Communications Review's April 1998 comparison of remote access
concentrators. The MAX 6000 also won top honors as the "Most Full
Featured for ISP's" and the "Most Scalable" product in its class. In
addition, the MAX proved to provide the lowest latency of any product
tested, which is important for new services like Ascend MutliVoice
voice over IP product.
Competing with systems from Cisco, ACC, Nortel, Osicom, 3Com, and
RASCOM, Business Communications Review lauded Ascend's system for its
thorough support of IP and Internet-related protocols and functions,
strong RADIUS-based security and accounting, and comprehensive WAN
interface support. According to the article, "It's easy to see why
Ascend has dominated the ISP end of the remote access marketplace with
systems like the MAX 6000."
Conducted at the Mier Communications Laboratories in Princeton
Junction, New Jersey, this product review is one of the most
comprehensive for remote access concentrators. It demonstrates
Ascend's lead across a broad range of features that make remote access
faster, more reliable, more secure and more profitable for Internet
and intranet service providers.
The MAX 6000 also placed first in two earlier tests of remote
access products. The first test by the Tolly Group, Remote Access
Concentrators Test Report Doc No. 8263, March 1998, showed the MAX
6000 to have superior modem and ISDN performance to the Cisco AS 5300
and Lucent Portmaster 3. The second test by XXCal of El Segundo,
Calif., showed the modem performance of the MAX 6000 to be superior to
the 3Com Total Control, Compaq Microcom 6200, and the Shiva LanRover
Access Switch products.
"These three recent product reviews confirm the MAX 6000 as a
remote access performance leader," said Dana Harrison, Director of MAX
Product Management at Ascend. "But there's much more to providing
industrial strength remote access and the BCR review shows how
dominant the MAX is in the critical areas of user accounting,
security, scalability, and system management, thanks to its advanced
True Access Operating System. With NEBS Level 3 reliability, unlimited
expandability, and the low latency needed to support future services
like voice over IP, the MAX 6000 stands alone as the leader in remote
access concentration."
In an earlier comparison test of five remote access concentrators
conducted in March '98 by XXCal Laboratories of Los Angeles, Calif.,
the MAX 6000 tied for first place in upload performance and was second
in download performance against a field of more expensive products.
NetworkWorld reported abnormally low performance results for the MAX
6000 in their March 23rd article, "Remotely Possible," which resulted
from a misconfiguration in the connection between the MAX and the test
switch. Therefore, Ascend contracted XXCal to repeat the test of the
MAX 6000.
In tests that precisely duplicated those performed for
NetworkWorld, upload throughput for the MAX 6000 was steady at 99 Kbps
over a range from one to 60 concurrent FTP sessions, tying for first
place with the more expensive Versalar 5000 from Bay Networks, Inc.
Upload performance of the MAX 6000 was 37 percent faster than the
Total Control HiPer Access System from 3Com Corp, 35 percent faster
than the Compaq Microcom 6200 Remote Access Concentrator from Compaq
Computer Corp, and the 32 percent faster than the LanRover Access
Switch from Shiva Corp. The MAX 6000's download throughput averaged 56
Kbps from one to 60 concurrent FTP sessions, second to the Versalar,
but 35 percent faster than 3Com's Total Control, 10 percent faster
than the Compaq's 6200, and 21 percent faster than Shiva's LanRover
Access Switch. Results from this test are posted on XXCal's Web site
at xxcal.com. |
