IBM solutions for the expanded campus enhance existing networks and offer easy migration and management.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 1995--IBM today is bringing out a fleet of new products, enhancements and management options that fit the changing shape of campus networks.

These offerings enable customers to exploit the power of new technologies while strengthening existing investments.

"As campus networks expand to include more diverse systems and different types of workers, IBM is responding to changing customer needs with flexible, manageable solutions," said Jim Boyle, Vice President, Enterprise Networking, IBM Networking Hardware Division. "We are enabling customers to support remote computing, add performance to Token Ring and Ethernet environments and easily migrate to new technologies, such as ATM."

The new offerings provide customers with the advanced technologies required in network-centric computing environments, in which networks become the platforms to enable anytime, anywhere access to information and services across multiple enterprises.

At the center of today's rollout are new and enhanced Token Ring hubs at attractive prices and products for simplifying network management. The hubs provide easy-to-use building blocks for small-to-medium networks, offer managed solutions for small and remote offices, and can inexpensively extend larger managed Token Ring networks. The management products gather a range of functions into one easy-to-install package.

The flagship of the new fleet, the Nways(a) 8238 Token Ring Stackable hub, offers industry-leading flexibility, interoperability and management and can scale your network by adding up to seven external units per stack, supporting up to 128 ports.

By supporting the longest lobe length in the industry (100 meters over Category 3 UTP), the Nways 8238 Token Ring Stackable hub eliminates the distance constraints users once faced in physically setting up networks. Also, because it is compatible with IBM's full line of Token Ring hubs, users can build and extend networks without interoperability concerns. The new hub offers a range of available management options form basic SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to SNMP with RMON (remote monitoring) capability. Users can choose the level most suited to their environments, paying only for the management they need. As needs change, users can easily add management options.

The Nways 8238 Token Ring Stackable hub offers an array of fault-tolerant features including redundant power units. It also is hot swappable, so units can be added without shutting down the system. Additional features include distributed beacon recovery. This enables every unit in the stack to protect against network shutdowns caused by "beaconing" which is the continuous signalling of error conditions on a LAN.

IBM also has extended its award-winning 8230 family of Nways Token Ring hubs with two new 16-slot models. The new models offer an unprecedented range of management agent options. These include SNMP; CMOL (Common Management Information Protocols Over LAN Media), which allows Token Ring networks to communicate status information to LAN Network Manager workstations; and RMON (remote monitoring) industry-standard management which is capable of reporting a very broad range of network statistics. These agent options work with all IBM and non-IBM SNMP management platforms, such as IBM SystemView(a) for AIX. They let customers buy today for existing management environments and migrate easily to any other type of management they may need in the future.

Filling a key position in today's rollout is the Nways Manager for Windows which simplifies campus network management by gathering a powerhouse of functions into a single, easy-to-use, inexpensive product. This single Nways software product eliminates the need for the individual management components previously required on each campus hardware device. It manages hubs, bridges, routers, switches and other internetworking products from IBM and other vendors.

This Nways software is packaged with NetView(a) for Windows(b) version 2, one of IBM's SystemView management platforms and works with the SNMP or RMON management agents in the internetworking device to detect and report hardware and network failures. It provides a graphical display of all network components. The components change color to signify problems.

Telecommuters and mobile workers will benefit from new remote-access offerings announced today. For example, a new Home and Away Credit Card PCMCIA adapter enables the single slot on a laptop PC to do double duty by functioning as both an Ethernet adapter and a 14.4Kbs (medium-speed) Datafax modem. Also, IBM's 8235 DIALs (Dialed Access to LANs) remote access product, previously available for DOS, OS/2 and Windows, now supports Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5 and PPP (Point to Point) protocol and offers better security, simplified management, and improved data compression.

For users looking to move to high-speed networking, IBM today is announcing its first implementation of 155Mbps ATM on the desktop and the hub via a hub module and ATM adapter card. This will enable users to implement 155Mbps ATM as a client, server or backbone.

These offerings and others announced today add to IBM's breadth of complete interoperable, standards-based networking solutions in Token Ring, Ethernet, ATM or any combinations of the three. IBM offers one-stop shopping that enables customers to expand network capacity through LAN switching, obtain unlimited capacity through ATM switching and move easily to either. IBM also increases user productivity by providing greater remote or local, plugged or unplugged access.

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