Alcatel hopes to squeeze into the tight WAN router market with a new family of low-cost routers aimed at small and midsize enterprises.
As part of an Interop New York launch on Monday, Alcatel introduced four members of the OmniAccess 600 family, which was built to offer good performance and integrated security at a lower cost for the price-sensitive SME market.
The OmniAccess 600 routers reflect a trend toward lower T-1 line costs and demand for wire rate performance when higher level features such as Quality of Service and embedded firewall are running in the router, according to Anthony Alegrete, product line manager at Alcatel in Calabasas, Calif.
“Customers can get higher data rates at the same cost they were paying for lower speed (56KB per second) lines. They are looking for an integrated solution at the edge of the enterprise with embedded firewall, VOIP and good QOS (Virtual Private Network) services. The new routers are built for performance, so that when you turn on that function, you dont start slowing down the box,” he said.
The new T-1/E-1 OmniAccess WAN routers include a single- and a two-port branch office router that includes switching and routing, an embedded firewall, QOS, standard IP routing protocols such as Open Shortest Path First and Border Gateway Protocol.
IPSec VPN functionality is available as a separate, keyed option. The two-port version also supports fractional T-1/E-1.
A larger four-port version, intended for larger branch offices or for network aggregation, provides four T-1/E-1 ports that can be combined into a single logical circuit using Point-to-Point Protocol and Frame Relay.
A modular two-slot OmniAccess 625 includes two 10/100 Ethernet ports with an external USB port for out of band management.
It includes a dual power supply for AC and DC. Embedded VPN hardware is included. The modular chassis can support up to 16 T-1/E-1 interfaces, or two DS-3 interfaces.
The OmniAccess 601 is $995, with the VPN upgrade priced at $595. The OmniAccess 602 is priced at $2,195 with the VPN upgrade priced at $795. The OmniAccess 604 is $4,195 with a VPN option priced at $1,395.
The OmniAccess 625 chassis starts at $3,895, with line cards ranging from $1,495 for four T-1/E-1 ports, up to $5,295 for a DS-3 line card and $1,495 for the VPN option. All are available now.