Unisphere product juggles protocols

Network World - Unisphere Networks Inc. plans to introduce an edge switch router for service providers that can talk to IP, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks and that can add service intelligence to the traffic.

Service providers can use the device to gather traffic from customer sites and switch it through to these backbone networks, the Westford, Mass.-based company said.

"This is for a service provider riding IP on an ATM network who is looking for a way not to expand the ATM network any further and to migrate to IP," said Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects Inc. in Washington and a Network World columnist.

Unisphere said its MRX multiservice edge router can switch among these protocols and map service qualities from one to another. Thus, an ATM virtual circuit could be mapped to the appropriate MPLS path to maintain the appropriate quality of service. Competitors such as Cisco Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Marconi Corp. lack integrated native ATM switching in their edge routers, said Tracey Vanik, an analyst at RHK Inc. in South San Francisco.

Unisphere claims that the MRX router can save providers money not only by protecting the usefulness of their existing networks, but also by combining into one device the functions of several others, including a router, a multiservice switch and an IP services switch.

The MRX router supports Gigabit Ethernet ports and high-speed optical ports that can be software configured to carry a variety of traffic types.

The switch router can be used to support MPLS virtual private network services and virtual LAN services, including multicasting that could support pay-per-view-type services, Unisphere said.

Unisphere makes three different Synchronous Optical Network (Sonet) line cards for the MRX: a 32-port OC-3 card, an eight-port OC-12 card and a two-port OC-48 card. Each can be programmed to support IP over Sonet or ATM over Sonet.

Each physical port can be carved into channels as small as OC-3 (155M bit/sec.), and each channel can be programmed to support IP or ATM over Sonet. So a single port on a two-port OC-48 (2.5G bit/sec.) card could carry an OC-12 (622M bit/sec.) ATM channel, an OC-12 IP channel, an OC-12 broken down into two ATM and two OC-3 IP channels and an OC-12 into one IP and three OC-3 ATM channels.

Competitor Agere Systems Inc. in Allentown, Pa., can configure ports with software, but it can't mix traffic on one port, Vanik said.

Each card carries the processing power it needs to handle its owninterfaces, so users don't have to pay for all of the processing power upfront. The MRX chassis has 16 slots and supports from 40G to 320G bit/sec. if two chassis are linked within a rack. Dzubeck said this gives the MRX more switching than Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies Inc.'s dedicated ATM switches.

Unisphere is taking advantage of its router technology developed for its smaller edge router, the ERX, which lacked native ATM switching.

The MRX costs $115,000 for the chassis and software. Line cards cost extra.