Lucent is pressing all the technology hot buttons this week with announcements about its digital subscriber line and virtual private networking gear.
Lucent's PathStar access server now supports IP voice over DSL links, allowing service providers to cram eight extra voice channels onto a single phone line.
The phone calls start out as packets at the customer's site, but can be delivered over either a packet network or a traditional circuit-switched voice network. The company says putting the voice functions in a single box streamlines carrier switching office equipment and makes it less expensive to support packet-voice services.
The box won't be ready until the fourth quarter.
The gear is compatible with Copper Mountain's CopperEdge DSL Concentrators and CopperRocket Integrated Access Devices to support voice and data over DSL.
Looking to the VPN arena, Lucent is releasing Version 2.0 of its VPN Gateway - which shifts configuration of VPNs from the gateway box itself to a management platform that can be centrally located. This should simplify the addition of new VPN members and changing their access rights.
The gateway, designed for large enterprises and carriers, lets network executives set up blocks of users with different authorization schemes to make managing VPNs easier. In addition, the gateway supports downloading digital certificates to remote users that are used for authentication.
In addition, the gateway supports authentication by RADIUS servers or Secure ID tokens from Security Dynamics.
Pricing for VPN Gateway starts at $17,985, which includes the Lucent Managed Firewall, the Lucent IPSec Client software, the Lucent Security Management Server software and a license for 100 users.
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