The local office of SMC Networks has confirmed the availability of its IMS Router Accelerator that looks set to improve the performance of conventional routers by up to ten times at a fraction of the cost of a high-end solution.
The key to the performance gains offered by the new products is its new AutoRoute technology. Greg Perkins, SMC Networks SA's country manager, takes up the story. AutoRoute automatically builds the IP routing configuration by observing the operation of the existing network, significantly reducing installation time.
Once the router accelerator has learned the network topology, it automatically performs all standard layer-3 routing operations for local data, including header modifications, TTL updates and checksum recalculation, he says, adding that WAN data is simply passed on to the conventional router without modification or delay.
Perkins emphasises the benefits of SMC's plug and play technology. This product can offer users all the benefits of a complete network overhaul at a fraction of the cost and effort. You can literally plug in the router accelerator and enjoy the benefits just minutes later.
At the heart of the SMC Router Accelerator lies a 4Gbps hardware routing engine based on a custom built Xpressway ASIC. The router accelerator's architecture also features high performance RISC processors that, in conjunction with the Xpressway ASIC, deliver millions of data packets per second. This compares favourably to conventional software-based routers that allow only hundreds of thousands of packets per second.
Mark Dykes, principal analyst with Gartner Group's Dataquest believes SMC has made a timely entry into this market. There is strong growth in the market for layer 3 solutions that economically speed up LANs with routed backbones, Dykes claims.
Developed in conjunction with FlowWise Networks, the new product also features true plug and play installation, with no configuration needed to add the router accelerator to existing networks.
The SMC Router Accelerator is available in two models; the IMS 800 and IMS 1600. The IMS 800 is equipped with eight full-duplex ports; the IMS 1600 has 16. In all other respects the products are identical.
This product provides a huge increase in overall network performance at a fraction of the cost of a conventional high performance router. It can be added and removed from a network with the minimum of fuss. It is not a switch or a hub, or a conventional router. It is a router accelerator and it performs a completely new role, concludes Perkins.
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