Ascend's New GRF 1600 Establishes New Benchmark for IP Switching; At 10 Million Packets/Second, Switch Delivers Contention-Free, High-Speed Throughput for Today's Capacity-Constrained Internet Backbones.

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 1997--Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASND) today introduced the newest member of the GRF family of high performance IP switches. The GRF 1600 is the only IP switch capable of delivering 10 million packets per second throughput with a fully loaded 16-slot configuration of high-speed media cards. The switching fabric of the GRF 1600, combined with Ascend's unique QBRT (Quick Branch Routing Technology) hardware-assisted routing table lookup, make this the first IP switch that delivers true linear scalability and transmission speeds up to 100 times faster than conventional routers.

The GRF 1600 is ideal for service providers and carriers whose business is dependent upon delivering high-capacity, IP network services to their customers. "There is no question that conventional routers are not suitable for the Internet -- as we know from the countless stories of brown-outs and system crashes; conventional routers simply were not designed for the kind of traffic volumes and dynamic routing that characterize an IP backbone network," says Mark Garver, general manager of the high performance networking division at Ascend. "The GRF 1600 is a breakthrough for service providers because for the first time, they have capacity and performance to spare. Whereas in the past they have been struggling to keep up with demand, now they can build an infrastructure that will enable them to stay ahead of the curve."

More Capacity at Higher Speeds

The GRF combines a crosspoint switching fabric with multi-ported IP Forwarding Media Cards to overcome the limitations of conventional bus-based architectures, whose performance steadily degrades as more ports are added. A 16 gigabit non-blocking, media-independent switch provides ample capacity for concurrent use of all 16 data paths, dedicating 1 Gb/s switch bandwidth to each media card.

The GRF 1600 not only handles a heavier traffic load than conventional routers, it does so up to 100 times faster by replacing traditional cache-based designs with QBRT hardware-assisted full-route table lookup. In a large network, cache-based routers fail to locate addresses in the local cache over 50 percent of the time. In these circumstances they must then perform a full route table lookup, resulting in significant latency. By going right to full-route table lookup and executing the search in hardware, Ascend's GRF architecture is able to achieve line speed packet-forwarding, even in large dynamic networks such as the Internet.

A Complete Solution for Customers

Ascend is the only vendor to offer a family of high performance IP switches. The GRF 400, introduced in September, 1996, recently won a Data Communications Magazine award for "Hot Product of the Year," noting that the GRF 400 is "up to the demands of today's IP networks" with its ability to "route 2.8 million packets per second...nearly six times faster" than competing conventional routers. With this family of switching solutions, service providers can choose the capacity they need for each POP.

A Complete Range of Capabilities

The GRF family of switches combines a high performance switching architecture with true Layer-3 routing, enabling it to handle complex topologies at unprecedented speeds. The GRF 1600's extremely compact size allows a fully configured system to fit in a compact 21 inch by 19 inch by 19 inch rack. Like the GRF 400, the GRF 1600 also supports a wide range of media types to easily fit into virtually any type of network topology. Media cards for the GRF 400 can be used in the GRF 1600, allowing users to preserve their investment.

Media Types: External LAN/WAN connectivity is provided by an assortment of hot-swappable multi-port media cards, including 10/100 Mbps Ethernet (8 and 4 ports per card), HSSI (2 ports per card), FDDI (4 ports per card), CDDI (4 ports per card), ATM (OC3c 2 ports per card, OC12c single port card), SONET (OC3c single port card) and HIPPI (single port card).

Packet Forwarding: Every media card is a full Layer-3 IP packet forwarding engine attached to the internal switch. Each media card contains input/output buffering, a complete route table supporting up to 150,000 routes and QBRT, the industry's first hardware-assisted full route table lookup engine capable of finding the next route hop in less than 2.5 micro-seconds.

Routing Protocols: The GRF 1600 supports BGP4 (including the latest enhancements: route reflection, MEDS, communities, DPAs, flat route damping, weighted route damping and confederations), OSPF, EGP, BGP3, IS-IS, RIP1, and RIP2. OSPF multicast and IP multicast are also supported.

Scalability: The GRF maintains linear scalability in all configurations since each media card has its own dedicated 1 Gb/s path to the crosspoint switch. Up to 16 media cards of any type can be used. Up to 128 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connections are supported.

Redundancy: The GRF 1600 is a carrier-class product with full redundancy including dual hot-swappable power supplies, hot-swappable fan module, and hot-swappable media cards.

Pricing and Availability

The GRF 1600 base unit will be available in North America in April at a starting price starting price of $32,000. Media cards for the GRF 400 and 1600 are currently available at a starting price of $13,500.

About Ascend Communications

Ascend Communications, Inc. is a leading, worldwide provider of remote networking solutions for corporate central sites, Internet Service Providers' points of presence, remote offices, mobile workers and telecommuters. Ascend develops, manufactures, markets, sells and supports products which utilize bandwidth on demand to extend existing corporate networks for applications such as remote LAN access, Internet access, telecommuting, SOHO connectivity and videoconferencing/multimedia access. Detailed information on Ascend products, news announcements, seminars, service and support is available on Ascend's home page at the World Wide Web site http://www.ascend.com .

Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, California 94502. Phone: 800/ASCEND4; Fax: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail].

CONTACT: Gallagher PR

Shannon Malliet, 510/747-2254

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