Cisco unveils access device, wireless LAN extensions

SAN JOSE - Cisco last week unveiled products that will let companies integrate voice and data networks and more reliably deploy wireless LANs.

For integrated voice and data, Cisco announced the IAD2400 series of integrated access devices, which, the company says, enable small and midsize companies to easily access bundled circuit- and packet-switched voice and data services from service providers. Cisco also announced the Aironet 350 series of wireless LAN products, which feature a number of security, performance and manageability enhancements over the previous generation of products.

The IAD2400 is a scaled-down version of Cisco's line of IADs, designed specifically for small and midsize companies. It resides in customer premises and connects LANs, routers, PBXs and telephones to the Internet and the public switched telephone network.

Cisco says the IAD2400 can be implemented in three ways: to provide time-division multiplexed access central office switches; packet-based access to central office switches; and packet-based access to softswitches.

The IAD2400 is expected to compete with Total Access SIP gateways and proxy servers from 3Com's CommWorks service provider subsidiary.

The IAD2400 series offers a choice of eight or 16 analog ports, or one T-1 digital port for voice connectivity. Users can also choose between a T-1 or DSL WAN interface with voice-over-ATM Adaption Layer 2 and voice-over-IP implementations.

The first product in the IAD2400 line is the IAD2420, which comprises three models: the IAD2421-8FXS, IAD2421-16FXS and IAD2421-1T1. They cost $2,695, $4,795 and $6,795, respectively. All three products are available now.

Cisco's new wireless LAN products will be available in February. The Aironet 350 series includes IEEE 802.11b-compliant access points, bridges and client adapters. The company's offerings will compete with 802.11b wireless LAN products from 3Com, Enterasys, Lucent and Nortel Networks.

Security enhancements include access to a back-end Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service server that will let customers identify and authenticate users and handle accounting. Performance extensions include 100-milliwatt transmit power, which provides the largest coverage area available, Cisco says.

The previous-generation Aironet 340 series supports 30- milliwatt transmit power.

The Aironet 350 access points can also be powered over an Ethernet cable. This is intended to reduce installation cost and complexity by not requiring a separate power source.

"[The inline power] allows you to save the expense of running AC power to a positioning unit out in the field," says John Brassil, network engineer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. "That's going to be able to save people a good bit of money."

Management enhancements include autodiscovery, Web-based SNMP management and automatic configuration updating.

The Cisco's Aironet 350 products are priced from $229 for a PC adapter to $5,995 for a security server.