Self-healing ring re-routes traffic in 50ms

Israel's RAD Data Communications has incorporated technology into its Megaplex data/voice multiplexer for self-healing capabilities on 100Mbit/s Fast Ethernet rings.

The Resilient Fast Ethernet Ring (RFER) carrier-class technology can re-route traffic within 50ms in case of link failure. This enables enterprise or campus clients to create a reliable network using dark fibre or dry copper in a ring topology.

Survivability is enhanced by RFER's modular, scalable support for multiple rings, which eliminates the risk of a single point of failure.

RFER uses VLANs to overcome the storming problems that occur when trying to broadcast over Ethernet rings or when a packet is assigned an incorrect address.

RFER is implemented in the new ML-IP Ethernet uplink module. Up to 8Mbit/s uplink capacity is available with either 10/100BaseT or 100BaseFx interfaces with 50ms protection. Serving as the main link to the IP network, a Megaplex-based network can support up to 40 E1 lines in a ring or daisy-chain.