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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: djane who wrote (47505)	5/26/1998 4:20:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

BAY Unveils Industrial Strength, Carrier-Class Dedicated Internet Access Platform [Q199 general availability. Level 3 reference is interesting] Business Wire - May 26, 1998 13:54 %BAY-NETWORKS BAY %CALIFORNIA %COMED %COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %TELECOMMUNICATIONS %INTERACTIVE %MULTIMEDIA %INTERNET V%BW P%BW SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 1998-- -- Versalar(TM) IP Access Switch 15000 delivers sophisticated IP Class of Service (CoS) capabilities, breakthrough density levels and dramatic cost-per-port savings -- Bay Networks(R), Inc. (NYSE:BAY) today introduced a next generation Internet access platform that provides Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with unprecedented IP CoS features and an extremely high concentration of dedicated connections; scaling to over 1,000 IP access lines that support line speeds from FT1 to T1 to DS3. Addressing the explosive growth within the dedicated Internet access market, the Versalar IP Access Switch 15000 is a new class of product that combines the reliability and density of Layer 2 frame relay switches with the IP CoS and control of Layer 3 routers at the edge of service provider networks." The Versalar 15000 solves the dedicated access issue by providing six times the density at one third the price of today's multi-box solutions, with far greater functionality. Its sophisticated CoS features allow service providers the ability to offer service level agreements (SLAs) and usage-based billing options, while its compact design saves on valuable real estate in the central office. "Bay Networks is tackling the huge demand for dedicated Internet and VPN access at the edge of service provider networks, where existing multi-box solutions have poor density and old technology; and are very expensive to deploy and manage," said Ilan Carmi, vice president and general manager of the Router Platform Division at Bay Networks. "To address this rapidly escalating demand, the Versalar 15000 is a new category of product optimized for leased line Internet services and makes a quantum leap in density and performance." "Given the exploding demand for dedicated Internet access from customers, the Versalar IP Access Switch 15000 is a perfect solution for service providers. Being able to replace both the Layer 2 switch and the enterprise router with a single, telco-class, high-density IP access switch is a huge win," said Mr. Thomas Sweeney, Vice President of Marketing at Level 3 Communications. "The Versalar IP Access Switch also brings added value to ISPs by providing the IP-centric routing intelligence needed to deliver Differentiated Services and Class of Service guarantees." Supporting the Bay Networks Adaptive Networking Access cornerstone, the Versalar 15000 adds tremendous value at the edge of service provider networks by allowing for much higher levels of aggregation; as well as providing an application intelligent platform for the delivery of value-added IP Services, such as virtual private networks (VPN) and voice-over-IP, through flexible CoS capabilities. The performance of ultra high-speed hardware-based packet forwarding combined with the control of IP routing, further supports the company's commitment to delivering open, interoperable solutions that optimize IP networks, and the Internet, for business critical applications. "This platform provides lower cost of ownership through its extremely high density and has exactly the type of Class of Service capabilities that service providers need to offer value-added, differentiated business services to their enterprise customers. Bay Networks is delivering sophisticated CoS features that are critical to evolving the Internet into a business class network." said Christopher Jenkins, president of ZipLink, a significant provider of Internet backbone and access services for the WebTV Network. The Versalar 15000 will leverage the powerful Bay Networks Routing Switch Processor (RSP), an industry-leading Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) technology that combines routing and switching on a single chip. The Bay Networks RSP is programmable like a conventional CPU, but contains functions that are optimized for a routing switch. Because of the software programmability, the RSP ASIC delivers extremely high performance while protecting hardware investments via easy software upgrades. Additionally, the differentiated services are supported by the RSP, allowing it to provide wire-rate performance even with sophisticated CoS capabilities enabled. Bay Networks has combined multiple RSP's to build the highly scalable Versalar 15000. "The Versalar 15000 is the first IP switch designed from the ground up to cost effectively terminate hundreds of T1 ports. This results in significant cost savings for service providers," said Ray Keneipp, Principal Analyst,Carrier Infrastructure for Current Analysis, an industry analyst firm headquartered in Sterling, Virginia. "The Versalar 15000's Differentiated Services architecture facilitates an ISP's ability to classify traffic in the provisioning of revenue-driving services such as SLAs." The Versalar 15000 leverages over a decade of routing software experience from Bay Networks in building large networks that use Bay Routing Services (BayRSO). Internet-optimized BayRS is modular and open, which enables emerging standards integration without forklift upgrades. Value-added traffic management, classification, policing and accounting capabilities allow service providers to offer Differentiated Services, and generate revenue via new usage-based SLAs. The Versalar 15000 allows differentiation between multiple classes of premium and non-premium traffic to provide service level agreements based on delay or packet loss without having to over-engineer the backbone. "This is as much about software as it is about building robust hardware. Features such as SLA policing and accounting provide more flexible service offerings for the end user and more profitable usage-based revenue generation for the service provider," said Sally Bament, vice president of product management of the Router Platform Division at Bay Networks. "This hardware/software solution combines the benefits of world-class IP routing and telco switching to deliver industry-leading cost-per-port, density, redundancy, scalability and management." Hardware/Software Architecture The Versalar 15000 is housed in a NEBS-compliant 30" high 12 slot mid-plane chassis. It provides fully redundant logic, power and cooling. The system is available with either -48V or 220V AC power sub-systems. Access Options - 4 Access slots that can be populated with any combination of: o 6-port Channelized DS-3 Access Interface o Dual-port Channelized OC-3 Access Interface with SONET APS support o High Density E1 Access Interfaces o Frame Relay and PPP Access Protocols supported on all access cards Dual Redundant Trunk Options o OC-12c ATM o OC-3c ATM o OC-12c POS o Gigabit Ethernet The Versalar 15000 has a unique design in that it decouples forwarding and control planes. This revolutionary architecture combines both ASIC-based hardware forwarding with Bay's Internet proven BayRS control plane software. The BayRS control plane supports BGPv4, OSPF, I-ISIS, MPLS, Bay Command Console (BCCO), and SNMP. The RSP-based fast forwarding plane supports wire rate speed under fully loaded conditions and with integrated CoS features. Pricing and Availability Pricing: Less than $500 per T1 (average sale price) Early Availability: Q4 CY 1998 General Availability: Q1 CY 1999 About Bay Networks Bay Networks - Where Information Flows(TM). Bay Networks, Inc. (NYSE:BAY) is a leader in the worldwide networking market, providing a complete line of products that serve corporate enterprises, service providers and telecommunications carriers. The company offers frame and ATM switches, routers, shared media, remote and Internet access solutions, IP services and network management applications, all integrated by Bay Networks' Adaptive Networking strategy. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Bay Networks markets its products and services around the world, providing 7x24 support coverage. For additional information visit the company's World Wide Web site at baynetworks.com or call 800-8-BAYNET. This release, other than historical financial information, may consist of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. For instance, factors which could cause results to differ from future events include the rate of adoption of new technology, competitive pricing actions and marketing programs, among others. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Bay Networks with the S.E.C., specifically the most recent reports on forms 10-K and 10-Q, which identify important risk factors which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Bay Networks is a registered trademark of Bay Networks, Inc. Bay Networks - Where Information Flows, BayRS, BCC and Versalar are trademarks of Bay Networks, Inc. Other brand and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders CONTACT: Bay Networks Media Relations Matt Burke, 978/916-1320 mburke@baynetworks.com OR Investor Relations Sandra Toms, 408/495-1181 stoms@baynetworks.com

To: djane who wrote (47505)	5/26/1998 4:22:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Cisco Gives Providers More Ways To Offer DSL Services [Check CSCO News for other DSL announcements] (05/26/98; 2:28 p.m. EST) By Salvatore Salamone, InternetWeek techweb.com Cisco Systems Tuesday announced the Cisco 6510 Service Selection Gateway (SSG) and Dashboard, and the Cisco User Control Point (UCP) digital subscriber line products that will make it easier for service providers to tailor DSL service to individual users. The heart of the SSG product is a dedicated processor that sits in a carrier's central office or a service provider's point of presence. The Cisco 6510 Service Selection Gateway and Dashboard combination lets service providers offer users a way to select on-demand, additional services beyond a flat-rate DSL access service they may already use. For example, a service provider offering a low-speed asymmetrical DSL service might choose to let users select a higher-speed version of the ADSL service when needed. Cisco uses standard Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service-based accounting so a provider can bill for such services. The Cisco UCP is a carrier-class, service policy administration system that lets a provider offer personalized IP services. The Cisco UCP integrates authentication, authorization, accounting, roaming, and address management services into service providers' existing operations support systems. The Cisco UCP works with Cisco IOS software so that a provider can offer a range of customized IP services for each user. For example, the system can be used to offer premium services that offer better quality-of-service levels than one would normally get with a flat rate, monthly ISP service. The Cisco 6510 SSG and Dashboard will be available in June; pricing is $43,000 and includes an unlimited number of user licenses for the Dashboard. The Cisco UCP will be available in July; pricing starts at $60,000, including installation and training.

To: djane who wrote (47505)	5/26/1998 4:29:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

WorldCom to operate GEIS network [At 5/21/98 shareholder meeting, Mory said outsourcing trend plays right into ASND strengths] news.com By Tim Clark Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM May 26, 1998, 12:05 p.m. PT update In a major strategic shift, GE Information Systems, the biggest player in electronic data interchange (EDI) e-commerce, will let telecommunications giant WorldCom operate its secure, private network. GEIS, a unit of General Electric, will focus on EDI services (electronic transactions sent computer-to-computer without human intervention), messaging gateways, extranets, electronic catalogues, and online marketplaces. For WorldCom, GEIS represents another deal that guarantees a long-term service contract. In a similar arrangement last fall, WorldCom bought the former CompuServe network and America Online's network operations in return for a multiyear deal to provide network services to AOL. "We believe the electronic commerce game is going to be won at the solutions level, not the transport level," GEIS spokesman John Berry said. Separately, newcomer Sage Networks has acquired a former IBM Web hosting infrastructure in Washington, D.C. Sage also signed a long-term contract with KnowledgeLink Interactive, to host infoMarket and Newsstand, two former IBM services KnowledgeLink recently acquired. The deals also enable Sage to offer Lotus Notes, Domino, and enterprise hosting services. E-commerce analyst Torrey Byles, president of Granada Research, termed the GEIS-WorldCom deal "a watershed event." "They're going away from owning the network plumbing to selling value added services," Byles said, noting that EDI competitors Harbinger and Sterling Commerce already lease the networks used for their value added networks (VANs). "The amount of investment you need to put into the network to stay competitive has grown tenfold," said Jim Macioce, GEIS vice president of operations. "WorldCom also brings economies of scale because of its size." In three to five years, once the deal is fully implemented, GEIS will gain 658 new dial-up access points and 104 frame relay sites, tripling its points of presence worldwide. WorldCom will assume operating control of 22 GEIS network service centers but GEIS will retain 4 data centers where it implements e-commerce services. WorldCom also will get GEIS network facilities in a number of areas where it currently has thin coverage, including China, Europe, and Latin America. WorldCom, parent of Internet backbone provider UUNet, also has enough capacity for GEIS to offer bandwidth-hungry applications like voice and video. Under the agreement, 57 GEIS employees will be transferred to WorldCom, but no layoffs are planned. Financial terms of the deal, under which the transition will begin July 1, were not disclosed. Prior to this agreement, GEIS has used WorldCom among the 20 network providers for its secure private network, both in the United States and in Great Britain. Macioce said WorldCom's aggressive growth and planned investments in infrastructure gave it the bulk to handle the network needs of GEIS, which has more than 90,000 trading partners on its network and also operates the internal network for General Electric. Key elements include plans to spend $2.9 billion this year to build infrastructure and acquisitions of ISP UUNet and competitive access carriers MFS and Brooks Fiber. But WorldCom's acquisitive growth has raised the hackles of others, including the European Union and the Justice Department , both of which are investigating WorldCom's proposed buyout of MCI Communications on antitrust grounds. (See related story) related news stories EC attacks WorldCom merger May 26, 1998 Fiber-optic firm sues WorldCom March 23, 1998 WorldCom builds a powerhouse February 4, 1998 Netscape buys out Actra partner November 6, 1997 GE service builds extranets September 23, 1997 Business e-commerce on the rise June 25, 1997 Copyright c 1995-98 CNET, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy policy.

To: djane who wrote (47505)	5/26/1998 4:35:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 61433

CNM: A delicate balance for service providers internettelephony.com Giving customers control without sacrificing security, performance, cost and scalability will be the true test of customer network management technology PAMELA DODGE Pamela Dodge is Director of Product Marketing, Network Management Systems, for the Core Systems Division of Ascend Communications Inc. By enabling subscribers to view their portion of the public network, Customer Network Management (CNM) technology is eliminating the issue of control, which has long been a stumbling block for enterprise users who are considering a move away from private networks. Because offering this capability represents a fundamental shift in the way service providers normally conduct business, checks and balances are essential. Before delivering CNM services, service providers should balance the recognized advantages of sharing control with customers by putting a number of checks in place. These checks include ensuring scalability and security, closely defining types of services offered and establishing cost-effective delivery methods for CNM services. In the area of scalability, service providers should realistically evaluate how the CNM solution is designed so as not to overload the network with management traffic. For example, CNM solutions should be able to isolate historical and real time requests, fulfilling these requests in the most optimum manner. Real time requests must be fulfilled via a direct query to the network (resulting in the generation of management traffic), but much information--such as confirmation or reporting--can be obtained from a local cache of historical information. To be effective, CNM services should tightly link service providers and customers while isolating customer inquiries from day-to-day public network management operations. This approach not only minimizes network management traffic but also eliminates potential security risks. In further addressing the issue of security, service providers must ensure that customers can only view their piece of the public network and do not have access to other information. Each customer must be restricted to the network resources that they use to transport their traffic. For instance, the physical ports, logical virtual circuits or trunks that are dedicated to them must appear only to them. This means that one customer must not be able to see another customer's elements at the enterprise level, or that competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) A must not be able to see CLEC B's resources. The security must be implemented throughout the network, from the resource level up through the service management applications. Security of transport for the data also is critical. Mechanisms such as encryption and secure socket layer (SSL) must be deployed to ensure that the information path is secure. Service providers also must consider the level of CNM flexibility they want to offer. The CNM technology should allow a service provider to create various types of services with differing levels of privilege to meet the requirements of different network segments. Services can be defined to include read-only capability or read/write capability as well as reports on, or views of, fault and configuration performance information. Read/write access, for example, reduces provisioning time and provides a level of ownership for customers with all the benefits of a private network. In offering such CNM services, service providers must formulate strict definitions of the types of services they will offer and to whom. For example, a CMN customer who is a CLEC may be given access to configuration fault and statistics information with a partner's service, while a CNM customer who is an enterprise manager may be only given view access to service level agreement (SLA) reports. In addition, although service providers may not be considering offering write services today, it is important to prepare to offer such services in the future. The best CNM applications will enable service providers to package new services so they can deliver different CNM services to different customer groups. At a minimum, CNM service packages must allow end users to monitor their subscribed portion of the public network. Services can be defined that differentiate what the user sees, such as activity and performance information including circuit utilization, error performance and mean downtime or to view configuration information about committed information rate (CIR) levels, quality of service settings and outstanding faults. Services such as these greatly enhance the appeal of network outsourcing and port wholesaling by giving subscribers unprecedented 24-hour access to network data so they can monitor link, congestion and service quality at any time. This allows enterprise network managers to maintain a high degree of control while their traffic is being carried over the public network. The ability to monitor the performance of their portion of the public network also helps enterprise managers to proactively plan for network growth just as if it was a private network. When offering CNM information, service providers must reformat information to make it useful to the customer's business. Delivering graphical information on network activity with tables, charts and graphs, for example, provides easy-to-understand access to network data for internal and external customers. End users want to be able to see reports that show service level conditions at a glance to determine whether or not the service they are getting meets the contract requirements. New technologies such as Java are allowing CNM services to be an operational reality. Making the reports available using standard web browsers opens the public network to end users, allowing them to monitor the operational status of network devices and connections, configuration information, performance statistics, accounting or billing data, and trap alarm conditions. Making use of web technology to deliver CNM services is cost effective. It allows platform independence at the customer level and no software distribution control for service providers. Customers can simply access information via web browsers from their desktops. In addition to the enterprise applications discussed above, CNM services also can be used for delivery of information to internal service provider employees such as account managers, business managers or network planners. The ability to gather detailed service usage statistics will enable service providers to review network performance and usage to properly plan for network growth and design. The ability to proactively examine the network activity of accounts will help account managers strengthen customer relationships and possibly lead to new sales opportunities. As CNM breaks down the barriers keeping enterprise users from turning their private networks over to public transport, service providers must carefully plan their CNM offerings before simply giving users the control they are demanding. Ultimately, a service provider's success will hinge on putting in place a system of checks and balances for scaling the network to maintain performance, ensuring the security of each customer's data, tailoring service offerings and keeping costs down. The final reward will be a value-added service offering that will tightly tie service providers to their customers. Pamela Dodge is Director of Product Marketing, Network Management Systems, for the Core Systems Division of Ascend Communications Inc. Visit the Ascend Communications website. RETURN TO TOP Selections from our Archives March 30, 1998 InFocus Which end is up? Making room for competition in a deregulated world PAMELA MOFFITT DODGE June 23, 1997 Intelligence & Software Network with a view Newbridge, Siemens broaden customer control CHRIS BUCHOLTZ January 13, 1997 An ongoing OPEN HOUSE Thanks to quality-of-service guarantees, customers are no longer in the dark about network performance. Increasingly, performance reports-- and their delivery mechanisms--are differentiating carrier services PAMELA MOFFITT DODGE November 11, 1996 Intelligence & Software Merger aids management BT/MCI alliance could focus customer network management solutions CHRIS BUCHOLTZ RETURN TO TOP Additional resources on the Net The Committee on Network Operation and Management (CNOM) RETURN TO TOP Any Comments? Send them to Karen Murphy at msblues@earthlink.net. www.internettelephony.com InFocus May 25 c1998 Intertec Publishing Corp., a Primedia company All Rights Reserved. \| HOME \| JOB ZONE \| SUBSCRIPTIONS \| ARCHIVES \|