Accton, Sandburst team up on metro access

Accton Technology today announced it has developed a metro access switch using Sandburst’s HiBeam chipset.

Like virtually every box in the metro market today, the MetroBox-Access Switch, or the ES4826, is targeting carriers’ desire to provide triple-play services. From a feeds and speeds perspective, the unit supports 20 ports of RJ-45 10/100/1000 copper Ethernet, four Combo Gig E ports and two ports of XFP 10 Gig E. A second version, the ES4826A, supports 20 ports of SFP Gig E, four Combo Gig E ports and two ports of XFP 10 Gig E.

What separates the switches, though, from competitors is its ability to fit in carrier networks, according to Anmar Kahn, Marketing Director for Sandburst.

“This is the first ever that is NEBS Level 3 compliant,” he said. “It’s not another re-spin of an enterprise switch.”

Both companies are pitching the product as an edge device with Accton’s previous product, the 4824 in the access layer and the newer 4826 on the edge.

“Ideally, you’ll have gigabit Ethernet links to the 26, and it will aggregate into the metro core,” Kahn said.