Extreme, Xylan preview switch advances

LAS VEGAS - Several vendors last week offered sneak peeks at emerging technologies and the next generations of their LAN switches at NetWorld+Interop 99.

Among those with a lot to show was Extreme Networks, which previewed an upcoming 10/100/1000M bit/sec autosensing switch and demonstrated wave division multiplexing (WDM) technology.

Extreme also was one of several vendors showcasing Gigabit Ethernet over copper with technology fresh from its labs. Extreme ran Gigabit Ethernet over copper from one switch to another, as did Hewlett-Packard with its ProCurve switches. Alteon WebSystems and Packet Engines demonstrated the technology on network interface cards.

The copper version should help reduce the prices of Gigabit Ethernet equipment, says David Passmore, research director of NetReference. "The cost of production for Gigabit Ethernet over copper is about the same as Fast Ethernet," he points out.

Extreme also had in its booth a 32-port switch that will eventually be able to automatically detect the speed of an Ethernet connection over copper and adjust accordingly, says George Prodan, vice president of marketing at Extreme. The product will work for all Ethernet speeds and will likely be out by year-end, he says.

Extreme also demonstrated WDM on its BlackDiamond chassis switch. Four full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet inputs on one card were multiplexed onto one multimode fiber-optic line on a second card. Extreme says the line can reach about 220 meters.

Separately, Xylan says it will soon unveil the OmniAccess switch, a device that can send voice or fax calls over frame relay, ISDN or a virtual private network.

OmniAccess is intended as competition to the Cisco 2500 branch-office router, says Steve Kim, president and CEO of Xylan. Kim says Xylan was developing the product before being acquired by Alcatel.

Xylan expects to ship the product in the third quarter.

Also at the show, Performance Technologies displayed a Fast Ethernet switch with fault-tolerant capabilities. The Nebula 8000 has two switching fabrics, one of which backs up the other. The switch has 32 ports of Fast Ethernet and will cost $24,000. The product is expected to ship this summer.

Extreme: (888) 257-3000; Xylan: (818) 880-3500; Performance Technologies: (716) 256-0200