At the same time, Lucent has announced price reductions of up to 20 percent on its existing P550 Layer 2-only switching modules driving down the per-port prices of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet in certain configurations, and has also introduced two new Gigabit Ethernet Layer 2 modules.
Sean Owen-Jones, managing director at Lucent Technologies BCS, South Africa, said: "The new Integrated Routing functionality for the P550 Cajun Switch delivers up to 18 million packets per second of scalable IP and IPX routing at wire speed, along with 45,76 gigabits per second of backplane switching capacity - all in the same highly-reliable, 7-slot, modular chassis. With two-to-three times the capacity of most other Ethernet switches, and hardware-based traffic filtering and prioritisation, Lucent`s P550 Cajun Switch allows network managers to deliver integrated switching and routing and more bandwidth than ever to growing local area networks and high-performing desktops."
Designed specifically with the campus backbone in mind, Lucent`s P550 Cajun Switch with Integrated Routing performs the same Layer 3 routing functions as legacy software-based routers, but at gigabit wire speed. The P550`s "no bottlenecks" design directs internetwork traffic 10-100 times faster than these more expensive software-based offerings, and provides more scalability than other next-generation hardware-based routers.
Michael Howard, founder and CEO of Infonetics Research, a San Jose, Calif.-based consulting firm, explained: "Because the P550 with Integrated Routing incorporates both Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality in the same chassis, users get the high-performance and scalability of a 10/100/1000 megabits per second Ethernet switch, combined with the power of an IP/IPX router. Lucent`s P550 Cajun Switch allows network managers to implement switching and routing in their campus LANs - where they need it and when they need it - in a cost-effective manner. Lucent has raised the competitive bar in this market segment with the new Layer 3 functionality and the price reductions of its existing Layer 2 modules."
"The response we have received to date from our Layer 3 beta customers has been exceptional," continued Owen-Jones. "We are delivering an extremely competitive product to the market with a robust set of features and uncompromised reliability, and at the same time offering users wire-speed 10/100 routing ports at highly discounted per port pricing. We feel the switching and routing capabilities of the P550 Cajun Switch puts Lucent squarely in a
leadership position as the next-generation campus LANs are designed and built," he asserted.
Each P550 Cajun Switch accepts new, multilayer (Layer 2/Layer 3) modules that add 1.5 million or 3 million packets per second of routing capability for a total of up to 18 million packets per second. These packets cross an undersubscribed crossbar switching fabric designed to handle as much traffic as users can deliver, unlike some competing systems which are oversubscribed, resulting in packet loss or delay.
The P550`s new ASIC-based Packet Routing Engine performs classic packet-by-packet routing without resorting to proprietary schemes, making it completely interoperable with existing standards-based installations. The new multilayer modules are also completely compatible with the P550`s existing Layer 2-only modules, which lets users tailor the precise proportions of routing and switching performance they require.
In addition to a new multilayer Supervisor Module, users can mix-and-match five new multilayer media modules for the P550 Cajun Switch with Integrated Routing that can provide up to 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 60 fibre Fast Ethernet ports or 72 10/100 Ethernet ports in a single P550 chassis.
The P550 lets managers control network traffic by performing, in hardware, policy IP filtering and prioritisation based on source and/or destination IP address or subnet, Layer 4 TCP/UDP port number (or choice of other Layer 4 protocol), and IPX filtering and prioritisation based on service name, service type, network numbers and MAC address of the sender. The P550 also delivers full Quality of Service (QoS) support for multimedia through Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP).
The P550 Cajun Switch with Integrated Routing supports the full suite of IP protocols for unicast (OSPF, RIP and RIP2) and multicast (IGMP, DVMRP, PIM and MOSPF), plus IPX (RIP) at no extra charge.
The P550`s capacity, scalability and fault tolerance are complemented by its comprehensive, Web-based network management system that provides point-and-click configuration of the Cajun Switch`s extensive feature set quickly and easily from any frames-capable Web browser. Additionally, a highly-functional Command Line Interface is available through the P550`s front panel console port, or in-band using Telnet.
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