3Com raises the ATM switch ante
CoreBuilder 9000 boasts 70G bit/sec capacity to rival Cisco and FORE
gear.
By Jim Duffy
Network World, 09/07/98
Boxborough, Mass. - Taking direct aim at Cisco and FORE, 3Com this week
will announce its most powerful ATM backbone switch to date.
Targeting users building more scalable multiservice ATM nets, 3Com's
Core-Builder 9000 ATM switch is a 16-slot, 70G bit/sec device that is already
installed at about 30 sites.
The switch, which will ultimately support a 14-fold bandwidth boost over
3Com's current ATM backbone offering, is designed to go up against Cisco's
Catalyst 5500 and 8500 Multiservice Switch Router, and LightStream 1010.
The 9000 will also compete with FORE's ASX-4000 switches.
"This is a very important product for 3Com; this is the pinnacle of our product
portfolio," says Clinton Ramsay, vice president of marketing for 3Com's
Enterprise Systems business.
But 3Com still faces an uphill battle in the enterprise network arena. According
to The Dell'Oro Group and a separate study by In-Stat, FORE has a substantial
market lead in ATM LAN switch port revenue for the second quarter of 1998.
Cisco is the leader in number of ports shipped, In-Stat reports.
According to the study published by Dell'Oro, FORE ranked first in ATM
LAN switch revenue for the second quarter of 1998, with a 23.9% share. The
In-Stat study also ranked FORE first, with a 30.1% share in the same period.
In-Stat ranked Cisco first in worldwide ATM LAN switch port shipments for
the second quarter of 1998, with 26.5% market share. 3Com, meanwhile, was
well behind in ATM LAN revenue and shipment in the second quarter, with
7.6% and 6.3% shares, respectively, according to Dell'Oro.
"We need to gain further market share and we will," 3Com's Ramsay pledges.
Take that to the bank
3Com is banking on the CoreBuilder 9000 for that gain. Of its 16 slots, 14 are
for payload and two are for redundant switching fabrics. Initially, the
nonblocking switching fabric will be 15G bit/sec, but 3Com plans to scale that
to 25G bit/sec and 50G bit/sec next year, and then to 70G bit/sec in 2000.
3Com's current ATM backbone offering is the 5G bit/sec CoreBuilder 7000.
By contrast, Cisco's LightStream 1010 and Catalyst 5500 switches can handle
5G bit/sec. The company's Catalyst 8500 MSR will scale to 20G bit/sec, but it
isn't shipping yet.
FORE's ASX-4000 is a 40G bit/sec switch that started shipping last week. The
company also offers the 10G bit/sec ASX-1000 and is developing a 20G bit/sec
frame/cell switch for enterprise LAN applications under the code name Hydra,
which will ship next year (NW, July 27, page 1).
3Com's CoreBuilder 9000 can sport up to 88 155M bit/sec OC-3 ports and up
to 22 622M bit/sec OC-12s on quad-port and single-port daughtercards,
respectively. The daughtercards, which support either multimode or
single-mode fiber, fit into I/O modules for each slot that have a dual OC-12
connection to the CoreBuilder 9000's passive backplane.
Each I/O module holds two daughtercards. This allows users to mix and match
different port interfaces on each slot, depending on what's required, 3Com
says.
The switch also supports up to four power supplies and redundant management
controllers.
3Com will roll out 2.5G bit/sec OC-48 interfaces for the CoreBuilder 9000
when it upgrades the switching fabric to 25G bit/sec. Future features also
include DS-3/E-3 WAN interfaces and Multi-Protocol over ATM (MPOA)
Server capabilities in the second half of 1999.
These features will enable the CoreBuilder 9000 to function as a central ATM
route server for MPOA clients - 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet/ATM wiring
closet switches like 3Com's CoreBuilder 7000 - at the network edge.
3Com also plans to add OC-12 uplinks to its SuperStack wiring closet switches
in the first quarter of 1999 so they can have a high-speed ATM riser
connection to the CoreBuilder 9000 in the backbone. And 3Com will ship
Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switching modules for the CoreBuilder 9000 before
yearend, Ramsay says.
Users seem satisfied with the switch's current capabilities. Widener College in
Chester, Pa., opted for the CoreBuilder 9000 over offerings from Cisco, Bay
and Cabletron.
User satisfaction
"Great product," says Gary Habermann, director of network operations. "We
moved into production about six weeks ago. Currently there are about 17
buildings running through one box with about 600 users and 40 servers. So it's
running 60% of what I have on my backbone today."
The ATM switches let Habermann extend voice, data and video to classrooms,
libraries, laboratories and administrative offices over a single network.
Habermann says he has two more CoreBuilder 9000s on order.
Dominion Semiconductor in Manassas, Va., also picked the CoreBuilder 9000
over Cisco's ATM offerings.
"Right now we've got two of them," says Dan Jamison, networks architect at
Dominion. "Cisco offered up its Catalyst 5500s, so it really wasn't much of a
comparison. Cisco's Cougar 8500 wasn't that far along at that point." Cougar
was Cisco's code name for the 8500 MSR.
In all, 3Com claims to have replaced Cisco's Catalyst 5500 in 12 of the 30
CoreBuilder 9000 ATM deals closed to date.
CoreBuilder 9000 costs $40,800 for chassis, 15G bit/sec switch fabric, power
supply and software. OC-12 interface modules cost $9,950 and $13,950 for
multimode and single-mode fiber, respectively.
OC-3 modules cost $9,950 for multimode and $20,950 for single-mode fiber.
3Com: (978) 264-1400. |
