Air France Flies with StrataCom's ATM; National Airline Selects StrataCom's New IGX to Offer International Value-Added Networking Services.PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1995--With a goal of expanding its business to provide value-added network services, Air France today detailed plans to build one of the largest Asynchronous Transfer Mode See ATM. (communications) Asynchronous Transfer Mode - (ATM, or "fast packet") A method for the dynamic allocation of bandwidth using a fixed-size packet (called a cell). See also ATM Forum, Wideband ATM. ATM acronyms. Indiana acronyms. (ATM) networks in France using StrataCom equipment. As part of its plan, Air France will replace its existing time-division multiplexed network with a new high-speed backbone based on StrataCom's new IGX IGX Inspector General Exercise IGX Intelligraphics (Dallas, TX, USA company; developer of computer device drivers) IGX Integrated Services Digital Network Gateway Exchange IGX Integrated Gigabit Exchange IGX Integrated Gigabit Switch ATM networking platform. The new Air France ATM network will support all of the company's corporate multimedia and legacy applications and will be used to offer high-speed value-added services to other companies. The ability to offer value-added network services was made possible by regulatory changes earlier this year allowing new operators into the French VAN data services market for the first time. Initial Rollout and Service Offerings The initial rollout calls for over 30 IGX switches to be installed and deployed throughout France. The StrataCom backbone is due to be fully installed by mid 1996 and will extend Air France's existing network capability with 100 nodes in France and international connections to 25 countries in Europe, USA, North Africa and the Indian Ocean. The network will be designed to support a wide range of user traffic such as voice, data, LANs, video conferencing, SNA (Systems Network Architecture) IBM's mainframe network standards introduced in 1974. Originally a centralized architecture with a host computer controlling many terminals, enhancements, such as APPN and APPC (LU 6. and X.25 traffic. As a new service provider, Air France will initially offer national, and ultimately international, frame relay and X.25 services. Platform Selection The choice of StrataCom's IGX to carry high speed services was based on several key criteria, according to Philippe Balin, telecommunications director of Air France. "We wanted a highly bandwidth efficient switching platform that gave us the benefits of ATM at today's speeds while being able to handle our existing legacy traffic. We also needed a clear migration path to broadband ATM services using the same infrastructure," Balin said. "As a new entrant into the VAN market, issues such as network reliability and scalability are extremely important. When we looked at the available technologies, only a cell-based platform that supported both narrowband and broadband networking could meet all of our requirements," Balin concluded. Air France will target its network services at two specific markets: companies adopting X.25 now with plans to migrate to frame relay and companies requiring network outsourcing. Air France has already sold over 3,000 network connections, valued at over 200 million francs, to approximately 60 customers. Over half of these new customers require LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. interconnect services. According to IDC, LAN interconnect traffic volumes in France have grown by 150% since 1993. StrataCom StrataCom, Inc., (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :STRM STRM Stream (US Postal service standard street suffix) STRM Starmedia Network, Inc. (stock symbol) STRM System Trouble Report Menu STRM Streamer ), based in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. , USA, develops, delivers and supports FastPacket networking systems for multiband ATM applications in private wide area networks and public carrier service offerings, such as frame relay and ATM. StrataCom's family of products, including IPX (Internetwork Packet EXchange) The network layer protocol in the NetWare operating system. Similar to the IP layer in TCP/IP, it contains a network address and allows messages to be routed to a different network or subnet. (R), IGX(TM) BPX(TM), AXIS(TM), FastPAD(TM), and EdgeConnect(TM), is used to integrate and transport a wide variety of corporate information, including voice, data, video, LANs, image and multimedia traffic in narrowband to broadband ATM network applications. Visit StrataCom's home page at http://www.stratacom.com The IGX Designed specifically for enterprise users and VAN providers, StrataCom's IGX is a 16 or 32 slot, 1.2 gigabit, non-blocking ATM switch that employs a redundant cell-switching bus. Supporting the industry's broadest range of user and network interfaces, from subrate speeds to broadband ATM, the IGX conforms to all relevant international ITU and ANSI (American National Standards Institute, New York, www.ansi.org) A membership organization founded in 1918 that coordinates the development of U.S. voluntary national standards in both the private and public sectors. It is the U.S. member body to ISO and IEC. standards and is fully conformant to the ATM Forum's UNI 3.0, PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) A routing protocol used between ATM switches in an ATM network. It lets the switches inform each other about network topology so they can make appropriate forwarding decisions. and NNI specifications as well as all current defined ATM classes of service including CBR, VBR, VBR+, UBR and ABR (1) (AutoBaud Rate detect) The analysis of the first characters of a message to determine its transmission speed and number of start and stop bits. (2) (Available Bit R . The IGX also employs sophisticated software capabilities such as OptiClass (up to 32 classes of service), AutoRoute au·to·route n. An expressway in France and French-speaking countries. [French : auto, automobile; see auto + route, road (from Old French; see route). (automatic rerouting), ForeSight (closed-loop congestion control), FairShare (virtual circuit queuing and rate scheduling), and FrameClass (prioritization of frame relay traffic). The IGX is available now and currently shipping. Depending on configuration, the price of an IGX system ranges from $26,000 to over $300,000. The list price for an IGX-16 and IGX-32 is $26,000 and $37,000 respectively. This price includes a network processor module, chassis and power supply. CONTACT: StrataCom, Inc. Barbara Burdick, 408/494-2003 bburdick@strata.com David Callisch, 408/534-2521 dcallisch@strata.com |
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