Verilink intros C series solutions: CSU/DSU units let smaller businesses use T-1s for voice and data

A new series of entry-level CSU/DSU units from Verilink could allow carriers to provide their smaller business customers with combined data and voice traffic over their T-1 lines, an offering that could reduce costs and management complexity for both carriers and customers.

The San Jose-based Verilink last week unveiled its "C" series product family, an inexpensive set of solutions for simple network management protocol-managed digital network access solutions on the market. The solutions--the C56, the C100 and the C150--are designed to allow smaller offices to capitalize on cost savings produced as a result of integrating high-speed Internet access and digital voice over a single FT-1/T-1 facility.

For carriers, this means a possible new marketing opportunity for the small office/home office marketplace, said Tom Flak, director of marketing at Verilink.

"We're taking a lot of the functionality of our Access System 2000 line and scaling it so that it can be deployed in smaller environments," said Flak. "These systems maintain the scalability of the AS2000 devices, but they start at a price point that makes much more sense for smaller businesses and carriers.

"The three initial products in the "C" series can be managed remotely from any SNMP-based management workstation. Using the front panel control switches, network administrators can adjust the units from 56K to FT-1/T-1 speeds, making it easy to meet current and future bandwidth requirements for connecting to the Internet and other data networks.

Each unit in the line--the C56 with integrated CSU/DSU, the C56 Plus module, the FT-1/T-1-based C100 and the C150 drop-and-insert configuration for combined digital voice and data communications--provides basic system monitoring functions. These functions include logging alarms, system events and diagnostic events.

The use of SNMP allows the units to function in a heterogenous environment with very little customization, said Flak. The most expensive product in the line, the C150, sells for $1195.

For carriers, the C150 could hold the most promise. The unit allows small businesses to economically combine digital voice and data on a single T-1 line, providing a savings to end users and a value-added product for carriers to offer their business customers.

"Allowing customers the option of combining traffic also makes administration and network management easier for the service provider," said Flak.