Compact ACE-101 Offers Carrier-Class CLE for ATM Access; RAD Data Communications Adds Multiservice Access Support to its Intelligent ATM Demarc Device.

MAHWAH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 1999--RAD Data Communications today announced support for voice and LAN concentration in its ACE-101 ATM demarc device. New ACE-101 modules include an IMA (4 x T1/E1) and CES/LAN modules, expanding carriers' flexibility to deliver a greater mix of services over a single ATM access link - T1/E1, UNI, T3/E3 or a variety of 155 Mbps interfaces. The intelligent CLE (Customer Located Equipment) incorporates powerful SLA (Service Level Agreement) verification features, comprising physical layer, ATM layer, and application layer probe capabilities. The enhanced ACE-101 is being introduced at ComNet 1999 in Washington, D.C.

Marketing Strategy: Penetrate Service Providers with Intelligent Carrier-Class ATM Access Device Positioned at `Lower End' of ATM Access Market

"The big players in the ATM access market--such as Cisco, Ascend, Lucent and 3Com--are targeting corporate VPNs. RAD, on the other hand, is focusing its ACE-101 on service providers and CLECs, which require a lower cost device that can concentrate multiservice data and voice with the added functionality of powerful ATM-based SLA verification features and a wide selection of rates and media interfaces," says Amnon Presler, President of RAD Data Communications, Inc. "Smart access products like the ACE-101 will hasten the deployment of ATM-based voice, LAN and legacy traffic services, which have been announced by Sprint, AT&T, and MCI-Worldcom," predicts Presler. "Another reason for U.S.-based carriers to get excited about the ACE-101 is that the product also supports E1/E3 standards, giving U.S. based carriers an even playing field in European and international ATM access markets." Presler noted the ACE-101 is a standard demarc device for BT, France Telecom and several other major international carriers offering ATM UNI services.

New module offers Multiple T1 CES and Ethernet

The ACE-101 multiservice access concentrator comes with a new module that offers both multiple T1 CES and Ethernet. "We have found that the most popular services being offered over ATM are voice/LAN connectivity," states Ariel Caner, ATM Product Manager at RAD Data Communications, "and that's what this module supports. With this new hybrid module, ACE-101 can be used as a voice and LAN traffic gateway to the public ATM network. The range of supported rates - T1, 4 x T1, T3, STS-3c - makes it suitable to any size corporate branch office or headquarters."

"Packaging these two in one device," Caner added, "allows service providers the capability to offer QoS and bandwidth management from ATM to Ethernet and voice, with full flexibility of service offerings, media and rates." The ACE-101 addresses the growing trend of service providers to move all their traditional services (such as Leased Lines, Frame Relay and voice) over to ATM backbones. "With the ACE-101," Caner said, "carriers will be able to do so without losing service flexibility and by gaining more control and better QoS. This is achieved through standard ATM bandwidth management and traffic control functionality - OAM flows, traffic policing, monitoring and shaping."

Standard IMA Reduces WAN Costs

Also newly released is an IMA (Inverse Multiplexing over ATM) module supporting 4 x T1 ports. "This enhancement serves enterprises with low- to mid-range WAN access requirements, saving them the cost of expensive T3 leased lines. The IMA module reduces WAN access costs, supporting traffic consolidation while ensuring fault tolerance through advanced traffic management," Caner concluded.

End-to-end management of service parameters

The ACE-101 enables end-to-end measurement of service parameters such as connectivity, delay, error rate and cell loss rate, according to the I.610 standard, which define the network's Quality of Service commitment. This functionality has proved to be of great importance in the ATM network core. The ACE-101 extends such functionality to the network access, and hence simplifies the core. This extensive amount of data enables carriers to offer a flexible SLA, which can be accurately tailored to the ATM usage of the user. Furthermore, user-sensitive billing mechanisms easily can be offered based on the data gathered from the physical and ATM layers.

Traffic shaping--essential for guaranteeing QoS to customers and carriers alike

In addition to traffic monitoring and policing, an optional traffic shaping function provides additional assurance for the customer. This option allows customers to better utilize their ATM services, even at low rates. Both customers and ATM service providers enjoy improved service, since no cells are dropped, even in cases of bit rate adaptation. For private ATM or traditional service users, traffic shaping allows flexible and accurate adaptation to the required service. Time sensitive applications like voice can run over ATM in conformance to the relevant QoS parameters, e.g. CDV, CLR and CTD. In addition, ATM service providers benefit from traffic shaping performed at the customer premises, as it smoothes ingress traffic. Thus, public network congestion is prevented, while network utilization is increased.

RAD Data Communications designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of high-quality data communications and telecommunications product and system solutions for carriers, service providers and corporate networks. RAD is a member of the $265 million RAD Group of companies, a world leader in networking and internetworking product and system solutions. For more information, visit RAD's web site at www.rad.com. Call RAD toll-free at 1-800-444-7234. Send email to RAD at [e-mail].