JANUARY 30, 2008 -- TC Communications Inc. (search for TC Communications) has announced the commercial availability of its new flagship Gigabit Ethernet Multi-Service Access Platform (MSAP), the JumboSwitch product Family.
Based on Ethernet/IP, VoIP, and TDMoIP technologies, the JumboSwitch MSAP family offers an efficient, low-cost alternative to SONET/SDH network equipment and promises straightforward and simple scalability for any network topology and size, explain TC Communications representatives.
Compared to the complicated hierarchies of SONET- or SDH-based systems, says the company, the JumboSwitch drastically reduces operational expenses since it eliminates unnecessary hardware layers, thus lowering the skill level required for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
In the past, SONET and SDH communication systems were the only choices when it came to building mission critical automation and control systems. But progress in the control, computing, and communication technologies has made these TDM-based communication systems basically obsolete, contends the company. The trend is moving towards Ethernet/IP-based communication backbones.
TC Communications says its JumboSwitch makes communication network design extremely easy and straight forward. Legacy equipment, e.g. T1/E1, T3/E3, RS-232/RS-485, can co-exist harmoniously on the same platform with more advanced technologies, including Ethernet; Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) fiber ports; Turbo Serial for protective relay communication; and LANex, a virtual VoIP PBX, without the need for additional Call Managers or SIP Servers.
The centerpiece of the JumboSwitch family is a fully-managed and easily scalable Gigabit Ethernet switch that integrates up to seven hot-swappable Ethernet voice & data interface cards onto a Gigabit Ethernet backbone network, report company representatives.
Management, networking, and security features are extensive and include STP, RSTP, SNMP (v1& v2), VLAN, IGMP Snooping, Port Rate Control, QoS, etc. The JumboSwitch supports all popular topologies, including redundant ring, bus, string, star, and add/drop multiplexing. It is available in 2-U and 4-U (rack) versions. TC says that with its proprietary self-healing technology, the recovery time for JumboSwitch fiber rings is less than 50 m/sec for any number of nodes.
Configurations are flexible and easily determined by network engineers. For example, it could be configured as a 10/100/1000-Mbit/sec Ethernet 42-port redundant ring switch with any combination of fiber or copper ports. Or, it could be configured with 12 channels of Ethernet, eight channels of T1/E1, eight channels of phone, and four channels of RS-232.
All JumboSwitch family interface cards come with an optional industrial hardened version (-40 ° C to 80 ° C) for extreme environments that meet or exceed all pertinent industrial specifications.
Victor Liang, vice president of sales and marketing, notes that the JumboSwitch offers users outstanding price-performance ratios for their communication networks and extreme ease to design, build, and maintain. "JumboSwitch substantially reduces capital expenditures by maximizing bandwidth usage and eliminating unnecessary hardware hierarchies," he says. "And compared to SONET/SDH solutions, users will be pleasantly surprised by how much it reduces operational expenditures."
Liang also emphasizes the importance of bridging TDM and IP with GbE, TDMoIP, RS-232/485, and VoIP. "JumboSwitch is the ideal product for many system and network engineers [and] gives them the best of both worlds, TDM and Ethernet/IP, without having to compromise on the project requirements."
Visit TC Communications Inc.