Nortel to add redundancy to Accelar switches

By Jim Duffy
Network World Fusion, 10/16/98

Atlanta - Nortel Networks next week will roll out software for its Layer 3 switches that could enable users to avoid network downtime.

As part of a broader strategy of announcements for unifying voice, data and video networks, Nortel will unveil Version 1.3 of its Accelar switch software at NetWorld+Interop 98 here. Among the key features of 1.3 are:

MultiLink Trunking, for aggregating multiple 100M bit/sec ports into a multigigabit logical link
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, for backing up failed links
Layer 2 IP Multicast and Internet Group Multicast Protocol snooping, for multicast transmission control
IP subnet-based virtual LANs, which enable users to assign multiple subnets on a single Accelar interface
Supernetting via Classless Inter-Domain Routing, which permits the grouping of smaller subnet address spaces into one larger host address space
IP flow filters, which enable users to establish traffic priority and security decisions based on application, department or user.

The enhancements allow the Accelar switches to function more like traditional routers. Indeed, all the Accelar switches now need are WAN interface modules in order to provide most of the functionality of IP routers, observers note.

Nortel is expected to add a limited number of WAN links to the switches over time. The company will keep the Accelar WAN count low so as to not cannibalize sales of its Backbone Node routers, which are about 10 times more expensive than Accelars on a per-port basis, observers say.

Nortel rival Cisco Systems offers many of the same features of Accelar 1.3 on its switches and routers. For instance, Cisco has Hot Standby Routing Protocol software for link backup and EtherChannel technology for grouping multiple Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet links into a virtual high-speed trunk.

Release 1.3 is free for all Accelar 1000 users and is available now.