Editors' choice awards: Networld+Intertop, Atlanta, fall 2001

Communications News, Nov, 2001

The normally bustling Fall 2001 Networld Interop conference in Atlanta was interrupted by world events in September, with exhibit floor hours reduced to allow companies to ensure safe travel for their employees. Nevertheless, plenty of opportunities were available to examine new products and services, and to speak with companies that focus on the still actively spending enterprise market. Of those products viewed by Communications News editors, the six below were selected to receive the magazine's Editors' Choice Awards.

Optical tap

FAULT-TOLERANT FIBER TAP supports eight full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel links. The Fiber Tap IL/8 is an eight-port, fault-tolerant, passive in-line tap that gives simultaneous access to all ethernet and Fibre Channel SAN network traffic, including monitoring and analysis of physical errors. Up to three units can be cascaded together to enable the monitoring of up to 24 full-duplex segments. Passive and nonintrusive to link traffic, the IL/8 enables dynamic insertion of monitoring, analysis or security devices. The product supports single-mode and multimode Gigabit Ethernet and 1- and 2-gigabit Fibre Channel links.--Finisar Systems

www.finisar.com

Circle 312 for more information

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Layer 4-7 switching

INTELLIGENT APPLICATION SWITCHING DEVICE eliminates slow application performance and limited scalability by migrating networking functions from software to hardware, delivering a 10x increase in Layer 7 performance. The SummitPx1 switch performs wire-speed switching, TCP session analysis, termination, origination and modification, all within silicon. This allows network managers to create and implement rules to streamline access and speed up applications. The application switch encompasses a TCP/IP stack, a real-time content-analysis engine and a policy engine. For load balancing, a content-analysis engine locates cookies and URLs in packets, while the policy engine tracks users, their cookies and connection loads for servers. The switch delivers more than 120,000 Layer 7 new-user connections, and supports 235,000 new-user connections for Layer 4 applications.--Extreme Networks

www.extremenetworks.com

Circle 313 for more information

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Secure wireless connectivity

MAKE WIRELESS NETWORKS OPERATE AS EFFECTIVELY AS WIRED NETWORKS, without interruption and with secure access to the same data and applications that are on office PCs. NetMotion Mobility 3.0 infrastructure software is designed to manage connectivity and security on wireless networks, providing a continuous and secure connection between wired and wireless data networks. Mobile workers can freely move from wired to wireless, or network to network, and still keep a continuous data connection. Key enhancements in version 3.0 include new security features for wide-area clients running industry-standard L2TP over IPsec, enhanced security on Wi-Fi networks, expanded VPN services and support for the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. --NetMotion Wireless

www.netmotionwireless.com

Circle 314 for more information

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Network monitoring

COMPREHENSIVE NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEM for next-generation networks. The IXIA 100 is a performance-monitoring probe that is deployed across a network. Interface modules connect the IXIA 100 to the network, and centralized reporting and management software tools allow detailed network analysis. The system can be used for performance verification at several critical stages, including verification at circuit turn-up, constant monitoring of SLAs, measurements to validate service enhancements and troubleshooting. The system is capable of per-packet traffic characterization at up to 10-Gbps line speed, and has multiuser remote control, secure access, user-defined event logging and alerting with definable thresholds, Web-based reporting, and BERT capabilities. GPS-based global time synchronization delivers the capability to perform highly precise, one-way performance measurements to spot asymmetry in traffic patterns that can cause asymmetry in performance.--IXIA

www.ixiacom.com

Circle 315 for more information

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Security appliance

WTLS/SSL ACCELERATION IN ONE APPLIANCE for m-commerce and e-commerce networks. The NetSwift 2012 is a security appliance for wireless and wired Internet applications. The unit incorporates both the WTLS protocol for WAP gateways, and high-speed SSL for Web servers in a single, plug-and-play solution. The appliance is installed between the firewall and server, providing a performance boost of 1,000 transactions per second and 10,000 concurrent sessions, without the need for additional servers. The product has a hardware bypass switch, and provides static load balancing via round robin or least connections. Multiple units can be used for redundancy and failover. Remote management is achieved through SNMP and a browser-based interface. --Rainbow Technologies

www.rainbow.com

Circle 316 for more information