Cabletron made its long-awaited entry into the routing market recently with a multilayer switch from newly acquired startup Yago Systems.
Officials said the introduction of the SmartSwitch Router (SSR) does not represent a retreat from SecureFast, the proprietary, switching-based LAN architecture that has formed the basis of Cabletron's offerings since 1994.
However, Cabletron has acknowledged that the lack of a Layer 3 device that can interoperate with Cisco and other routers has created a hole in its enterprise offerings.
Also, Digital's network hardware division, which Cabletron agreed to acquire last year, introduced routing firmware for its workgroup VNswitch 900 recently.
The Digital switches represent an upgrade path for existing Digital customers and will not be sold through Cabletron's channels.
The SSR is based on a Gigabit Ethernet switch from Yago Systems. It uses Layer 3 and Layer 4 intelligence to route IP and IPX traffic as fast as 30 million packets per second, Cabletron officials said.
Also scheduled for the second half of this year, the SSR technology will be integrated into current SmartSwitch products.
Cabletron
Tel (02) 9950 5900
Fax (02) 9950 5950
