Cabletron expands high-speed router line

New SmartSwitch Routers grow desktop, high-density backbone offerings.

By Jim Duffy
Network World, 09/14/98

Rochester, N.H. - Cabletron's new routers are designed to let users cost-effectively extend high-speed routing services from the backbone to the desktop at prices that fall well below the competition.

Cabletron has rolled out SmartSwitch Routers (SSR) 2000 and 8600. They represent the low end and high end, respectively, of Cabletron's SSR family, which until now consisted of only the SSR 8000.

The SmartSwitch Router 8000, which Cabletron obtained from its purchase of Gigabit Ethernet start-up Yago Systems, now fills the middle of the SSR line.

All members of the SSR family will go up against offerings from Cisco, 3Com and Nortel. Cabletron claims it can offer Gigabit Ethernet at $125 less per port than the cost of products from these vendors.

Widespread support

All the SSRs support IP and IPX routing at Layers 2, 3 and 4, and comply with the IEEE 802.1p and 802.1Q standards for priority and virtual LAN tagging. They also support standard routing protocols such as the Routing Information Protocol, Open Shortest Path First and the Border Gateway Protocol, as well as Remote Monitoring and RMON 2 statistics collection for standards-based diagnosis. This means users can ostensibly interoperate with any other vendor's device that supports the same standards.

The new SSR 8600 is a 32G bit/sec switching router targeted at enterprise backbone applications. It sports a 16-slot chassis for LAN interface port modules, and can support up to 120 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and 30 Gigabit Ethernets ports.

The 8600 switches 30 million packet/sec, is fully redundant and includes hot-swappable switching fabrics, Cabletron says. The company will add dual-port High Speed Serial Interface modules, and dual- and quad-port serial boards to the SSR 8600 in the fourth quarter.

In the future, the SSR 8600 will support ATM and SONET interfaces, Cabletron says.

Competitively, the SSR 8600 will go up against Cisco's Catalyst 8510 and Nortel's Accelar 1200.

The SSR 2000 is a wire-speed routing switch for workgroups. It includes an 8G bit/sec switching fabric and can forward 6 million packet/sec, Cabletron says.

The SSR 2000 comes with 16 fixed-configuration 10/ 100M bit/sec ports and two expansion slots. These slots can hold eight-port 10/100M bit/sec modules - for an overall capacity of 32 10/ 100M bit/sec ports - or two-port Gigabit Ethernet uplink modules.

The SSR 2000 is designed to go up against Cisco's Catalyst 8510, 3Com's CoreBuilder 3500 and Nortel's Accelar 1100 switches.

However, Cisco's and 3Com's switches cost more than $10,000, while the SSR 2000 costs less than $9,000 in a configuration of 24 10/100M bit/sec and two Gigabit Ethernet ports, according to Cabletron.

The existing SSR 8000, meanwhile, is an eight-slot, 16G bit/sec switching router for enterprise backbones. The box supports 56 10/100M bit/sec and 14 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and can forward 15 million packet/sec.

Some users are already replacing Cisco routers with the SSR boxes. Injured Worker's Insurance Fund in Towson, Md., is replacing Cisco 3600 and 1600 series routers with up to four SSR 8000s and 8600s in its 3,500-node network.

"I've been a Cisco freak forever," says Troy Brocato, network assistant at Injured Worker's Insurance Fund. "I think that Cisco has got a definite battle on their hands here. It's the slickest thing I've seen since sliced butter."

The only downsides to the SSRs are that Cabletron could provide more detailed documentation on system setup and configuration. The company could respond to service and support inquiries a little quicker too, Brocato says.

"I did have one particular problem with a VLAN situation and it took me about 45 minutes to get in touch with an engineer," Brocato says. "If you're down, that's not going to suffice. If that's a back- bone piece, you're talking about a whole company being held at bay."

The SSR 2000 costs $4,995 for a 16-port base unit with power supplies and software. It costs $250 per Fast Ethernet port, Cabletron says.

The SSR 8600 starts at $9,995. It costs $499 per Fast Ethernet port and $2,995 per Gigabit Ethernet port.

Both routers are available now.

Cabletron: (603) 332-9400.