Leading Networking Equipment Vendors Announce
Formation of Industry's First IMA Interoperability
Initiative [ASND reference]
May 21, 1998
MILPITAS, Calif., May 20 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge
Corporation -- The industry's leading Wide Area Network
(WAN) access equipment vendors today announced the
formation of the industry's first inverse multiplexing for
ATM (IMA) Interoperability Initiative (I3). The initiative is
designed to facilitate the adoption of the ATM Forum
IMA standard through multi-vendor lab testing with
verification and IMA technical and market education
programs. Founding members of the I3 program include
leading WAN access vendors Larscom, Sentient
Networks and 3Com. Additional vendors that have joined
the Initiative are Ascend, Digital Link, Nortel and
Sonoma Systems. Other vendors and carriers on both
sides of the access spectrum have also expressed
interest in joining the Initiative.
I3 has been instrumental in the successful
interoperability testing between Sentient, Larscom and
Digital Link products. Full-scale interoperability testing
among all the participating vendors will start this week
at Sentient's headquarters in Milpitas, CA.
According to Nimish Shah, CTO and vice president of
business development for Sentient Networks, which has
spearheaded the formation of the I3 program, "We are
pleased to bring together such an esteemed group of
industry partners to form this IMA industry initiative. The
efforts of the I3 program are intended to significantly
accelerate the adoption of the IMA standard using
multiple T1 (1.544 Mbps) lines and give users a
cost-effective and scalable alternative to expensive T3
(45 Mbps) services and proprietary inverse multiplexing
schemes.
"The I3 interoperability lab testing offers carriers and
service providers a significant time-to-market advantage.
This is exactly what GTE has been looking for," said
Joe Lardieri, ATM Product Manager for GTE Network
Services. "By verifying interoperability between multiple
equipment vendors in the I3 labs, GTE will be able to
respond to our customers' requirements much more
quickly and effectively. We believe cooperative efforts
such as the I3 alliance are critical to the success of
ATM in the broader market."
About The IMA Interoperability Initiative
IMA Interoperability Initiative (I3) is a consortium of
companies formed to promote IMA as the
next-generation solution to address the need for
cost-effective bandwidth for both enterprise and service
provider market segments. The mission of I3 is to
promote IMA solutions via interoperability events,
marketing programs and application showcases that
result in increased customer confidence in the
technology and solutions as well as market acceptance.
"The formation of this IMA Initiative and the successful
interoperability testing with these leading vendors
represent a major cooperative effort in supporting,
implementing and interoperating with the ATM Forum
IMA standard," added Rosemary Cochran, principal of
Vertical Systems Group.
I3 has defined a test specification to ensure increased
interoperability between products and services from
different companies. To be certified as interoperable,
vendors' equipment must pass all the tests and
exchange data with other vendors' equipment.
I3 will sponsor an IMA application showcase in
conjunction with the ATM Year '98 show, to be held
June 1-5 in San Jose. This showcase will feature the
first public IMA interoperability demonstrations with
products from Ascend, Digital Link, Larscom, Nortel,
Sentient Networks, Sonoma System and 3Com. The
members of the I3 alliance will also be hosting an I3
press event at the ATM Year '98 show.
In the future, I3 plans to undertake periodic
interoperability between participating members to
ensure that all the IMA products and services conform
to the ATM Forum technical committee specification on
IMA, version 1.0.
The ATM Forum IMA Standard: Cost-Effective Access
Today, T3 is very expensive and provides more
bandwidth than many users require, while T1 does not
provide sufficient bandwidth for today's more demanding
data, voice and video applications. In addition, T3
service is often not readily available. IMA provides a
cost-effective and scalable alternative to T3 by allowing
service providers to leverage widely available T1 services
over ATM and interoperate with other vendors'
standards-based equipment. Standards-based IMA
interoperability ensures total flexibility and scalability of
multi-service networks from 6 Mbps and above in T1/E1
increments.
Previously, service providers were locked into vendors'
proprietary inverse multiplexers that required the same
vendors' equipment at both ends of the communications
link. The charter of the I3 program is to increase the
options available to service providers in deploying NxT1
services with products that are interoperable with ATM
Forum IMA standards. IMA Interoperability testing,
through the I3 program, will assure standards
compliance and heterogeneous equipment
interoperability.
For More Information
For more information on interoperable products and
services based on ATM Forum-compliant IMA, as well
as additional I3 marketing program information, visit the
I3 Web site at www.go-ima.com. Companies interested
in participating in the I3 program and submitting
products for interoperability testing in the verification lab
should contact Mihir Mohanty, chairman of the I3
alliance, at Sentient Networks at 408-473-8032 or via
email at mohanty@sentientnet.com.
NOTE: Companies and products mentioned herein may
be trademarks of their respective holdings and are
hereby recognized.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Please refer to the following list for
corporate and contact information for the initial members
of the I3 program.
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR I3 MEMBERS
May 20, 1998
About Ascend
Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures,
sells and services 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 send
e-mail to info@ascend.com. Ascend is headquartered at
One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway,
Alameda, CA 94502; phone is 800-ASCEND4 and fax is
510-814-2300.
About Digital Link
Digital Link Corporation (Nasdaq: DLNK) is a leading
provider of wide-area network and Internet access
solutions that deliver data, voice, and video information
globally. The company designs, manufactures, markets
and supports a broad range of cost-effective digital
access products, supporting narrowband and broadband
applications. The company's products are used by
Internet service providers and carriers as infrastructure
equipment and by business enterprises for connectivity
to WAN services, such as digital subscriber line (DSL),
frame relay, switched multimegabit data service
(SMDS), and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).
Digital Link is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and
offers its products worldwide. Company information
about products and services is available on Digital Link's
Web site: dl.com.
For more information, please contact:
Digital Link Corporation
Bill Smith
Manager, Marketing Communications
408-745-6200
About Larscom Incorporated
Larscom Incorporated (Nasdaq: LARS) is a leading
provider of high-speed wide area network (WAN) access
equipment. Its customers include carriers, Internet
service providers, corporate users, and government
agencies worldwide. The company's headquarters are
located at 1845 McCandless Drive, Milpitas, California
95035. For additional information, please visit the
company's web site at larscom.com or
phone 408-941-4000.
For more information, please contact:
Larscom Incorporated
Ursula Burger
408-941-4000 (phone)
408-956-0108 (fax)
email: burger@larscom.com
About Nortel
Nortel (Northern Telecom) works with customers in more
than 150 countries and territories to design, build and
integrate their communications products and advanced
digital networks. Customers include public and private
institutions; Internet service providers; local,
long-distance, cellular mobile and PCS communications
companies; cable television companies; and utilities.
Nortel's research capabilities around the world include a
network of research and development facilities, affiliated
joint ventures, and other collaborations fostering
innovative product development and advanced design
research in 16 countries.
Nortel had 1997 revenues of $US 15.5 billion and has
approximately 73,000 employees worldwide.
About Sonoma Systems
Sonoma Systems designs, manufactures and markets
high performance ATM multimedia broadband access
products for LAN to WAN connectivity. Sonoma
Systems enables Service Providers to cost-effectively
leverage their new and existing broadband infrastructure
to offer differentiated and profitable value-added services.
Sonoma Systems is headquartered in Marina del Rey,
California, with a technology center located in
Marlborough, Massachusetts, and sales and support
offices located throughout North America and in the
U.K. Additional information on products is available on
the Sonoma Systems website at
sonoma-systems.com.
For more information, please contact:
John F. Mazzaferro
Vice President of Marketing
310-827-8000, ext. 552 (phone)
310-305-2525 (fax)
email: john-mazzaferro@sonoma-systems.com
About Sentient Networks
Sentient Networks, Inc. provides the industry-leading
Ultimate family of carrier-class, multi-service access
switches with the breakthrough ASAP@ architecture.
The Ultimate product family gives the new generation of
service providers, including ISPs and CLECs, a single
platform for entering, expanding and growing markets
profitably. Sentient's products are available through its
regional offices located throughout the United States as
well as through a strategic OEM relationship with DSC
Communications.
Founded in 1995, Sentient Networks is headquartered in
Milpitas, California and sells to network service providers
worldwide. The company can be reached at
408-474-0300, via email at info@sentientnet.com or at
their Web site at www.sentientnet.com.
For more information, please contact:
JoAnn Johnston
Stirling & Karbo
650-322-6245
email: jvjohnstn@aol.com
About 3Com
3Com Corporation enables individuals and organizations
worldwide to communicate and share information and
resources at anytime from anywhere. As one of the
world's preeminent suppliers of data, voice and video
communications technology, 3Com has delivered
networking solutions to more than 100 million
customers worldwide. The company provides large
enterprise, small and medium enterprise, carriers and
network service providers, and consumers with
comprehensive, innovative information access products
and system solutions for building intelligent, reliable and
high performance local and wide area networks. For
further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at
3com.com.
SOURCE Sentient Networks
/CONTACT: JoAnn Johnston of Stirling & Karbo, 650-322-6245, or
jvjohnstn@aol.com, for Sentient Networks/
/Web site: go-ima.com
/Web site: sentientnet.com
[Copyright 1998, PR Newswire]
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