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Tasman Networks Inc. Monday launched launched a new branch office router that can easily scale to support multiple T-1 links and advanced software features.
The new Tasman 1004 can easily scale from one to four T-1 connections and at the same time offer a host of Layer 2 and Layer 3 routing protocol support—all the while delivering wire-speed performance, according to Paul Smith, president of the privately held San Jose, Calif., company.
“You can buy a router today for a single T-1 thats significantly less expensive than something from Cisco but has 100 percent of the hardware you need to expand the capabilities of that router. You can go to two, three or four T-1s, run at wire speed and you can run full (Border Gateway Protocol) 4. You can buy that for less than a T11 router from Cisco, turn on additional features and still maintain performance,” he claimed.
By building its branch office routers on a leaner hardware platform that isnt required to run the more processor and memory intensive Internet Operating System (Ciscos IOS), Tasman Networks, formerly Tiara Networks, has been able to cut out a unique niche for less expensive but fully functional branch office and mid-sized aggregation routers, according to Bob Bellman, president of Brook Trail Research, in Natick, Mass.
“Theyve been flying below Ciscos radar for some time. You can just keep turning ports on when you need more throughput. Thats rather novel,” he added.
To add an extra T-1 line or activate an optional software feature, users can Telnet into a Tasman router from a remote location and buy a software key from Tasman to activate it.
The Tasman 1004 includes an integrated Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit in each T-1 link, which can be bonded into multiple virtual circuits. The router, in addition to common Layer 2 protocols such as Point-to-Point Protocol, and routing protocols such as Open Shortest Path First, supports Virtual LAN tagging/forwarding, Network Address Translation and Quality of Service features.
The router, available now, is priced at $1,995 for four built-in T-1 ports—with only one activated. Additional ports can be activated using a software key priced at $1,095 per port. BGP 4 can be activated for $1,050.