INTERCONNECTS

Foundry Networks, a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced a significant expansion of its enterprise networking product line including a new family of enterprise Wide-Area Network (WAN) routers for Internet access and building enterprise Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and a new 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) Layer 2 backbone switch. Foundry's new AccessIron family of enterprise WAN access routers provides organizations with a scalable, reliable, secure, feature-rich and cost-effective solution for high-performance networking across the wide area. Foundry extends its 10-Gigabit price/performance leadership with the compact EdgeIron 8X10G 10-GbE Layer 2 backbone switch that delivers industry-leading 10-GbE price/performance and wire-speed switching to small enterprise backbone and high performance cluster and grid computing interconnect networks. These new products will significantly expand Foundry's enterprise product portfolio and extend Foundry's high performance leadership to enterprise wide area networking and virtual private networking. AccessIron Family of Enterprise Wide Area Network Access Routers The AccessIron product line consists of two series of enterprise WAN access routers. The AccessIron 1200 Series of T1/E1 access routers offer scalable connectivity for up to sixteen channelized T1/E1 wide area links. For building secure VPN networks across the public Internet, the AccessIron AR1204 supports optional IPsec providing ICSA-certified encryption and authentication. These products are ideal for branch offices and small to mid-sized enterprises. The AccessIron 3200 Series of T3 access routers are higher-capacity routers supporting one or two T3 wide area links. The T3 interfaces are available in channelized (28 x T1 channels) and clear-channel formats. AccessIron 3200 Series routers are NEBS certified, meeting the strict environmental and safety specifications required for service provider environments, and making the AccessIron 3200 suitable for service provide point-of-presence (POP) deployment. The AccessIron family supports advanced wire-speed security features including integrated firewall capabilities, enabling network managers to build hardened networks and prevent network disruption from Denial of Service and other harmful attacks. The AccessIron WAN access routers provide a flexible, scalable, feature-rich and cost-effective solution for Internet access and secure private networking. They feature extensive support for Layer 2 functionality including PPP/MLPPP, FR/MFR and HDLC; advanced routing protocols including OSPF, RIP, RIPv2 and BGP4; and higher layer services including QoS, VLAN tagging, double tagging/forwarding, NAT, packet filtering, and extensive monitoring and diagnostics capabilities. The AccessIron family complements Foundry's industry-leading, high performance Layer 2 and Layer 2/3 switching solutions to provide enterprises with a complete, secure networking solution from LAN to WAN. EdgeIron Compact Wire-Speed Layer 2 10-Gigabit Ethernet Switch With the introduction of the EdgeIron 8X10G 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch, Foundry extends its leadership in the 10-GbE market with the broadest range of 10-GbE products, highest performance 10-GbE switches and routers, and lowest price point per 10-GbE port. The EdgeIron 8X10G switch delivers wire-speed switching on eight 10-GbE ports in a compact one rack-unit high (1RU) form factor. The EdgeIron 8X10G switch is an addition to the field-proven EdgeIron family of high-performance Layer 2 switches. It features an advanced suite of standards-based Layer 2 services and is an ideal switching solution for enterprise backbone, high performance cluster and grid computing, and storage networking environments. The new switch is available with redundant power and uses state-of-the-art 10-Gigabit Small Form Factor Pluggable (XFP) optical transceivers. Delivering performance of nearly 120 million packets per second (MPPS), the EdgeIron 8X10G switch is expected to be the highest performance, non-blocking 10-GbE switch in its class. "Foundry Networks is known for its innovative and high performance LAN switching, Metro and Internet edge routing, and application Layer 4-7 switching products," said Bobby Johnson, president and CEO of Foundry Networks. "With the introduction of the AccessIron WAN access routers and EdgeIron Layer 2 10-GbE switch, we are continuing our strategy to expand our performance solutions from LAN to WAN and extend our leadership in the rising 10-GbE market."