3Com jumps back into router arena

3Com will revive another of its previously abandoned enterprise network lines this week as it launches a series of WAN routers for enterprise branch and central offices.

The 3Com Router 5000 series is designed to connect corporate sites, from small branch to large regional offices, with a variety of WAN links. The gear is also part of 3Com's strategy to offer a complete network product menu - from network interface cards to switches and routers, IP telephony and security gear - with a common management platform across the portfolio.

Observers say the router launch is a good step in 3Com's road back into large corporate networks, although image challenges linger because of the company's retreat from that market several years back.

In addition to supporting a variety of WAN options, such as T-1, frame relay and ISDN, the new 5000 series boxes also include integrated IP Security VPN functionality, and firewall capabilities with stateful packet inspection and traffic filtering. 3Com says quality of service also has been added into the 5000 series router software, letting delay-sensitive WAN traffic - such as voice over IP - be tagged and prioritized.

The new product line includes the 5009, with a single WAN interface module slot for small branch offices, the three-slot 5231 for regional offices, and four-slot 5640 and eight-slot 5680 for consolidating WAN links at a company's headquarters. WAN modules for the 5000 series include full and fractional T-1/E-1, Primary Rate Interface, ISDN and 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet products. All 5000 series modules are interchangeable.

The 5000 series launch is a reprise of 3Com's earlier PathBuilder product line, which included WAN routing, VPN and firewall products for midsize and large organizations. This line was discontinued in 2000, along with 3Com's CoreBuilder LAN switching line.

One user of 3Com's old PathBuilder routers, Jevic Transportation of Delanco, N.J., plans to install the 5000 series routers in its 12 offices nationwide.

"We'd been using the older 3Com routers after they discontinued the product, and they worked fine for us," says Anthony Holden, senior datacom analyst for Jevic, which operates a cross-country freight delivery service. "3Com kept giving us good support for those products."

The 5000 series boxes will connect Jevic sites via point-to-point T-1 connections. Jevic uses its WAN to run an application that syncs up freight delivery information in real time.

The 5000 series routers are resold from Huawei Technologies. The 5000 is based on Huawei's Quidway WAN routers, which have been sold in Asia for the past two years with an installed base of about 160,000 units, according to 3Com. 3Com this March announced a joint venture with Huawei, which let it sell 3Com-branded chassis switches and routers.

Shortly before the joint venture was announced, Cisco sued Huawei, saying the company violated Cisco intellectual property and copyrights. A federal court in June ruled that Huawei must remove code similar to Cisco's IOS code from its products and stop distributing product manuals that are similar to Cisco's. 3Com says the 5000 series does not violate any Cisco intellectual property.