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 F E A T U R E 
Mariposa Technology does it again. After winning in this category last year, you'd think the company would sit back and let someone else come up with a hardworking access concentrator. Nope. Mariposa improved on its own product by releasing the ATX150--a serious contender that builds on the strengths of the ATX100 (last year's winner) by adding IP routing capabilities with either RIP (Routing Information Protocol) or OSPF. Frame relay capability has been beefed up with support for FRF.8 service interworking (frame relay tunneled through an ATM network) and FRF.5 network interworking (frame relay/ATM translation).
The ATX150, like its predecessor, impressed us with its good voice quality, low cell loss through the network, and solid performance. It offers up to 180 voice ports with popular types of voice compression, such as G.723.1 and G.729A. FXS (Foreign Exchange Subscriber) ports allow connections to phones, while FXO (Foreign Exchange Office) ports offer connections to PBXs for full integration of services. Video can also be added to the network through the H.320 interface.
You won't have any problems connecting the unit to your network, as it supports such standards as DS-1, NxDS-1 IMA, DS-3 and OC-3. Although the ATX150 is designed for larger installations than last year's winner, the fact that Mariposa can scale the product line without sacrificing abilities won our hearts.
-- Darrin Woods
Who says modems are dead? Contrary to popular opinion, cable and DSL access is hardly universal, nor do we have a wireless Web yet, and that means modems are needed for remote connectivity. Lucent Technologies' MAX TNT WAN access switch certainly steps up to the plate. Lots of redundancy, strong management and good performance make the MAX TNT stand out. Look across the rest of the product line, and you'll find a modem solution for locations large and small.
Remote access servers are finicky beasts; redundancy and hardware management will keep your remote access running smoothly. If a modem in the middle of a hunt group fails, it can spell trouble for users trying to connect. When a modem board needs replacing, bringing the whole system down is just not acceptable. The MAX TNT answers those problems by tracking failed modems and taking them out of service until they're repaired. Its hot-swappable components take over when it's time to replace the modem.
Of course, managing extensive remote access requires equally extensive management. The MAX TNT is up to this challenge as well. An excellent CLI (call-level interface) helps line technicians tasked with maintenance and troubleshooting. For network administrators, NavisAccess, Lucent's management console, provides detailed real-time and historical reporting--a boon to any trend tracker. In shops running change-management controls, the built-in configuration management, auditing and rollback functions provide complete configuration control with incremental rollbacks.
To your end users, the remote access system is only as good as the performance they get. Even at 33.6 Kbps, bursts of up to 12,000 characters per second (cps) are not unheard of for highly compressible data. And the MAX TNT can more than handle that. Even the moderately compressible files seen in Web content, for example, will pass through the MAX TNT at 4,000 to 5,000 cps.
-- Darrin Woods
Voice over IP may be the wave of the future, but how we get there is the question right now. With data-networking companies having taken the lead in the development of voice over frame relay (VoFR) and voice over IP (VoIP) products from telecommunications companies, it's good to see one telecom company that hasn't been sitting still. Lucent has been busily preparing for the packetized-voice world by buying up companies to give it the edge it needs. This strategy is paying off in its Definity IP Solutions, an evolutionary path for its Definity PBXs. No longer are PBXs limited to carrying voice only.
Lucent created Definity IP Solutions to accommodate new technologies--most notably VoIP--as they arise (see "Deploying VoIP--Forklift or Migrate?" at www.networkcomputing.com/1012/1012f3.html). In adding the Definity IP Trunk card to the Definity PBX, Lucent has entered the VoIP world by allowing customers to map phone numbers to IP addresses and thereby route phone calls over a data network.
The addition of the Definity PC Console eliminates the need for an attendant to sit at a switchboard to route calls; that functionality is built into software on a desktop PC. Changes can be made quickly by loading a new revision of software instead of replacing expensive hardware. On the telephone front, Lucent offers the Definity IP Telephone, which provides an Ethernet connection; and the PC-based Definity IP Softphone. In all, Lucent has created a PBX that enters the 21st century with VoIP options and scalable software designs for quick integration of new technologies.
-- Darrin Woods
Networks are supposed to be easy to set up and maintain. At least, that's the theory. But in reality, they can require constant monitoring and massaging to maintain connections and keep carriers true to the SLAs they've offered you. Tools are needed to perform those functions, and Paradyne's OpenLane Service Level Management Solution performs like a champ in managing WAN connections (see "OpenLane Provides New Avenues to Network Management" at www.networkcomputing.com/1104/1104sp1.html).
OpenLane works with a wide range of Paradyne's hardware offerings, and allows a single-point solution for a variety of networking types, from frame relay to DSL. This one-product solution can monitor and track statistics for several types of networks. Stats collection provides precise figures--not just averages--over a given period of time, and occurs in-band without the need for extra management PVCs (permanent virtual circuits). OpenLane is fully scalable, from a single-server setting to redundant multiserver platforms. It can accommodate an enterprise environment with a few WAN connections, or a carrier that maintains thousands of connections. It offers module interconnectivity via standards-based protocols, and can be accessed from anywhere with only a Web browser.
You'll find OpenLane simple to use, with a graphical interface to guide you in selecting the device and the types of information you want. Output can be in the form of graphs or raw data, and is queried and stored by a SQL database.
-- Darrin Woods
Once again, Lucent's MAX 6000 takes top honors. This little powerhouse packs four PRIs and 96 digital modems into a 4U-high brick. In our tests, it nudged ahead of the competition with decent performance, strong management and a plethora of features.
While the MAX 6000 isn't the greatest performer on the block, configuration and management are where the device takes off. Anyone who has ever configured and supported remote access systems knows the pain and suffering of getting the system configured correctly and running. Gone are the days of the cryptic CLI (call-level interface) and cranky VT-100 terminals. Thank goodness! Lucent's Java GUI, NavisConnect, greatly simplifies the configuration process on the MAX 6000 by hiding the nitty-gritty details behind a well-thought-out manager. The MAX 6000 terminal interface is highly effective as well, offering simultaneous presentation of the configuration and system status on one terminal.
-- Darrin Woods
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