Service Provider Networks / (none) / View from the Edge:

A force to be reckoned with?

Force10 Networks set to emerge from stealth mode

By Phil Hochmuth
The Edge, 07/10/02

If you're a metro Ethernet carrier or a large enterprise shopping for a serious a 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, you might want to check in with newcomer Force10 Networks, if you can find them.

The Milpitas, Calif., switch maker has been operating in semi-stealth mode since its founding in 1999, but the firm is set to make its formal debut and product launch this fall. The company will roll out its E1200 Ethernet switch router, a 1.2 terabit, 14-slot chassis that can forward 600 million packet/sec. According to the company, the box will support up to 14 dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports (that's 28 10G bit/sec ports); 336 Gigabit Ethernet ports; or a mix of the two speeds. The box will support OC-3 to OC-192 Packet over SONET interfaces as well.

The E1200 is targeted as a metropolitan-area network core switch, where Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet links are aggregated. The box is also being pitched as a high-capacity network backbone switch for very large enterprises and research organizations.

Force10 has been quietly showing the E1200 at tradeshows and product demos for the past several months, but details on the box itself are scarce on the firm's Web site. (Interested parties have to fill out a form to receive a data sheet on the switch, via e-mail - I'm still waiting for mine.)

"The differentiator for our product is that we can do full line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet with QoS and Layer 3 routing," says Rob Quiros, director of product marketing for Force10. He claims competing high-end switches from Cisco, Riverstone, Foundry and Extreme come up short against the E1200, in that they don't have the backplane to support a chassis fully populated with 10 Gigabit cards.

Quiros is not forthcoming on price for the E1200, although it won't be cheap - IDC estimates that 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports will average around $35,300 this year. He is also shy about naming customers, but Force10 signed an agreement in January with Net One Systems, Japan's largest network integration firm, allowing the firm to resell the E1200. (Net One Systems' customers include Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, Ricoh, Canon and Fujitsu.)

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