Former Cascade personnel:
WESTFORD, Mass., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Redstone Communications, a leader
in next generation Internet Edge products, today announced the RX Edge Switch
Router, a new generation of routing device designed to tackle the unique
feature requirements at the edge of service provider networks. The RX
delivers sophisticated IP Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, along with
unparalleled port density levels, wire-speed forwarding performance and
carrier-class reliability.
Targeted at Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Competitive Local
Exchange Carriers (CLECs), the new RX delivers intelligent traffic management
capabilities through its advanced ASIC-enabled architecture. The device
performs packet classification, per flow queuing and scheduling at wire speed,
allowing service providers to deliver Differentiated Services and Quality of
Service guarantees to their business customers.
"The age of the universal router is over. In its place, highly
specialized switch routers are emerging to address scalability, performance,
reliability and service quality demands faced by service providers at the
network's edge," said Jim Dolce, Redstone's president and CEO. "The RX is a
new breed of switch router designed specifically for the edge of the service
provider network that bears little resemblance to first generation routers."
Conserving Scarce Point-of-Presence (POP) Space and Power
As access to the Internet explodes, service providers have the daunting
task of building an infrastructure that can scale to meet demand and still
provide the software intelligence necessary for deploying new value-added
services. This chore is compounded by the lack of available Point-of-Presence
(POP) rack space that threatens to restrict the number of new subscribers that
can be brought on-line.
Redstone's RX alleviates this problem with the industry's highest port
density in an Internet edge product, more than ten times the physical density
of current offerings. A single 22.75-inch shelf supports more than 4,000
fractional T1 terminations and up to 32,000 IP interfaces, while drawing less
than 20 amps of power. Up to three shelves may be stacked in a standard sized
rack, ensuring optimal use of scarce Point-of-Presence (POP) rack space.
100% Wire Speed Performance
Recent Internet traffic studies have shown that nearly half the packets
traversing the backbone are less than 64 bytes in length. These smaller
packets, generated by web-intensive applications, necessitate more packet per
second (PPS) performance to deliver wire-speed routing.
In short, growth in demand for bandwidth and features at the edge of the
Internet is outpacing the performance of pure software routers based solely on
RISC processors, making this approach unsuitable for next generation router
design. Redstone, instead, uses its in-house ASIC expertise to supplement
RISC processors.
"Our custom ASIC technology focuses hardware processing power on IP-
specific tasks to drive performance and port density up while driving cost per
port down," said Dolce. "The result is a scalable, wire-speed Internet edge
platform that is unmatched in current generation offerings."
Meeting the Requirements for Business-Grade Service Level Agreements
The RX is designed for continuous availability and consistent high
performance to achieve the service levels required from carriers as more
mission critical applications are added to IP networks. Its full logic
redundancy, hot swappable components, innovative distributed power system and
front-to-back airflow strategy all contribute to meeting the most stringent
Bellcore NEBS standards. These features decrease the time and complexity of
maintenance functions, while allowing service providers to confidently deliver
network reliability guarantees as part of overall Service Level Agreements.
"The level of reliability required on IP packet networks is fast approaching
what is currently available on the global voice network," continued Dolce.
"The introduction of the RX is a significant step forward in providing voice
network reliability in an IP network access environment."
Premium Service through QoS
With the transformation of the Internet into a commercial infrastructure,
the ability to provide differentiated services to users with widely varying
requirements is becoming as important as meeting bandwidth demand. Service
providers must be able to decide which traffic must be prioritized and which
traffic should take a "best-effort" service. To deliver this Policy-based
QoS, Redstone's RX identifies critical data flows and defines QoS profiles at
wire speed, for thousands of simultaneous end-user flows. During periods of
congestion, higher priority traffic is given preferential treatment according
to policies defined by the service provider.
The RX's policy-based QoS allows service providers to increase revenues
and brand equity by offering tiered bandwidth and pricing options (e.g.
premium-priced "Platinum" service, mid-priced "Bronze" service and low-priced
"Standard" service). In addition, the RX allows service providers to offer
Virtual Private Network (VPN) services for Intranet and Extranet traffic with
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) which guarantee minimum performance.
"Before corporations shift their private data networks to virtual private
networks (VPNs) on the public Internet, service providers must be able to
deliver rock-solid Quality of Service guarantees," said Lisa Allocca, Network
Systems Consulting at Renaissance Worldwide. "Redstone's new RX gives service
providers the capability to guarantee multiple tiers of service and the
scalability they need for supporting business critical applications."
Family of Products
The RX family includes two models - the high capacity RX1400 and the mid-
range RX700. Both models feature a full complement of Internet routing
protocols, including BGP-4, IS-IS, OSPF and RIP.
The RX1400 provides scalable capacity for thousands of users, making it
the ideal Internet edge switch router for service providers that operate high
capacity points of presence. Its modular, 14-slot chassis features a switch
fabric that operates at up to 10 Gbps, supporting high port density WAN
interfaces in a compact 22.75 inch package. A wide range of interface options
includes Channelized DS3, DS3, OC-3, OC-12, and Gigabit Ethernet.
The RX700, designed for applications that require mid-range capacity, has the
same features and performance of the RX1400 in a more economical 7-slot
package. Because both units share a common hardware and software
architecture, users benefit from investment protection as their access
requirements grow.
Both models can be managed and configured through Redstone's external
graphical Element Manager, a fully-featured Command-Line Interface (CLI)
including an embedded scripting language, and a V1/V2 compliant SNMP
interface.
Pricing and Availability
Redstone's RX700 and RX1400 Edge Switch Routers are in beta test now, with
first customer shipments planned for Q1 1999. The products offer price
leadership across a full range of interfaces, with a basic RX1400
configuration starting at $49,950.
About Redstone Communications
Redstone Communications, Inc., based in Westford, MA, was founded in
September 1997 to design, develop and market service provider solutions that
address the scalability, performance, reliability and quality of service
issues associated with the transformation of the public Internet. The
company's management previously held executive and director level positions at
Cascade Communications, which was acquired by Ascend Communications
(NASDAQ:ASND), and 3COM (NASDAQ:COMS). Redstone can be reached at
978-692-1999 or visit our web site at www.redstonecom.com.
SOURCE Redstone Communications
-0- 10/13/98
/CONTACT: Sheryl Schultz of SRS Associates, 508-647-0044,
sheryl@srsassociates.com/ |
