Hand in glove Switched virtual circuits to be instituted for ATM

AT&T plans to offer switched virtual circuits over its asynchronous transfer mode service, giving customers a usage- based pricing system. It is the first interexchange carrier to formally announce SVCs over ATM, although all carriers are expected to add similar service.

AT&T also published its pricing plan for the circuits.

With SVCs, ATM customers can take advantage of dynamic bandwidth with either a constant or variable bit rate quality of service (QOS) and pay for only what they use. Currently, ATM circuits are permanent virtual circuits that are "nailed up" all the time. AT&T's SVCs are available from 2.4 to 10 Mb/s for 0.5¢ a minute for the lowest QOS to $18 a minute for the highest QOS and speed.

Mike Smith, an analyst with DataPro Information Systems, questioned AT&T's choice to go directly to ATM SVCs without the seemingly intermediate frame relay SVC service.

Customer demand drove the decision, said Joe Lueckenhoff, product management vice president for AT&T Data Networking Services.

"One of the true benefits of ATM is that it can be multimedia and not suited to just one kind of traffic or another," he said.

TOSHIBA INTROS IP OPTION Toshiba joined the Internet protocol switching competition with a third option for its new CSR 5300. Ipsilon's IP switching and Cisco Systems' tag switching are the other protocols already in the industry. Toshiba's switch integrates cell switch router technology with asynchronous transfer mode to perform high-speed IP switching. GDC ADDS QOS TO FRAME RELAY General DataComm enhanced its APEX product line with quality-of-service mapping for frame relay to ATM. The frame relay additions to its ATM switch family mean lower cost and easier migration to the more scalable ATM. N.E.T. ENTERS ATM FRAY N.E.T. entered the ATM market with a new line of products for switching, access, multiplexing and network management. The Promina family competes with products from Newbridge, Cascade and Cisco StrataCom. PROTOCOL COMBO Ascend Communications has enhanced its GRF 400, four-slot IP switch to a new GRF 1600 with a 16-slot configuration. Users can choose combinations of up to 16 media cards for Ethernet, ATM, Sonet OC-3 and other protocols. ADSL MODEMS SPEED TO MARKET Westell Technologies released the second version of its asymmetrical digital subscriber line technology, the FlexCAP 2. The new rate-adaptive modem operates at speeds of 640 kb/s to 2.2 Mb/s downstream and 272 kb/s to 1.09 Mb/s upstream. The modem, based on GlobeSpan Technologies' carrierless amplitude/phase modulation line code, can be pre-set by the service provider or can self-configure for the best connection. voice runs on frame relay Hypercom, which recently announced voice capability over its frame relay switch/router family, introduced a video card for the same Integrated Enterprise Network product line. shiva boosts router functions Shiva Corp. rolled out the newest version of its AccessPort ISDN client router with added features, including dynamic IP address translation and tailored small office/home office enhancements. rad ups the t-1 ante RAD Data Systems upped the voice channel support over T-1 lines in its Megaplex-2100 multiplexer. The box now supports 144 voice channels over one T-1 line. reverse adsl debuts Diamond Lane Communications will add "reverse ADSL" to its Hitchhiker DSL/ATM system. The new feature will let Web site operators send information at rates up to 1.1 Mb/s. Promised ADSL upstream bit rates tend to be lower than downstream rates up to 8 Mb/s by a factor of eight.

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