Net to Net Technologies has been paying attention to the voice market, creating products that bring the best ideas together into the Sirius SDSL Integrated Access SIA2000 line, which is designed for the small or branch office that is serious (no pun intended) about DSL connectivity.
Starting on the network side, the SIA2000 devices support as many as four SDSL connections. These can be bonded to provide upward of 9-Mbps data throughput rates--more than enough to meet the voice prioritization and QoS needs of most enterprise customers. This bonding is good news not only for voice and normal data traffic; Net to Net said it will also be ideal for up-and-coming video applications.
To help use all that bandwidth, the SIA2000 boxes have as many as four voice ports and, with the line's bandwidth capabilities, compression is not needed. When a voice port goes "off-hook," the box automatically reserves 64 Kbps of bandwidth for the call. Throughput is reserved; users don't have to worry about QoS issues because their calls are not fighting other data for bandwidth. At the DSLAM, Net to Net has a built-in media gateway to route calls to their final destinations, whether on network or off.
Net to Net has not neglected IP. The company will include IP QoS in its CPE product line for differentiated applications. Also included is 802.1P packet tagging that maps Layer 3 priorities to Layer 2, identifying the type of service traversing the network.
Sirius SDSL Integrated Access SIA2044-S, available by month's end. Net to Net Technologies, (877) 638-2638, (603) 427-0600; fax (603) 422-0610. www.nettonettech.com.
Paradyne Corp.
FrameSaver DSL
Most people know Paradyne from its frame-relay and ATM management devices, but the company's DSL products deserve a look-see, especially if you already have Paradyne FrameSaver products in your network.
Paradyne does not offer products that support voice-over applications (though they are supported on the company's DSLAM). Paradyne has instead spent time bringing its network-management technology to the DSL market. Enterprise customers accustomed to full network statistics on their frame-relay or ATM networks have not had that information on their DSL links--until now.
FrameSaver DSL lets Paradyne customers get network statistics on their DSL connections. Connecting to the customer's router or acting as a router itself, these devices connect back to Paradyne's OpenLane management system. Although a customer's service provider would have to be using Paradyne's GranDSLAM, Paradyne is working on making FrameSaver DSL products compatible with other manufacturers' DSLAMs.
Paradyne has also been pursuing another industry first: extending the range of customers' deployed DSL products. While most enterprise customers need to be within a few thousand feet of the DSLAM, Paradyne has been working on enabling its ReachDSL products to push data farther. ReachDSL has been successfully and reliably tested at distances of more than 30,000 feet from the DSLAM, a boon for enterprise customers that until now have been just a bit too far from the CO.
FrameSaver DSL, available now. Paradyne Corp., (800) 727-2396; fax (727) 530-8216. www.paradyne.com.
ShareGate
DSL2000
ShareGate is looking at the DSL market from a different perspective. The company's initial product, the DSL2000, is geared toward home office users with ADSL connections who need to beef up their links to the company network but who don't want to rewire their homes.
Telecommuters have problems that on-site workers usually don't face. For example, while some home-based workers are able to set up year-round offices within their homes, others without established home offices may need to improvise from season to season, stringing cables around their houses to connect phones and computers to the office networks. Remodeling could create space for permanent offices, but that would call for the DSL and office phone lines be moved to the new locations.
The DSL2000 eliminates that hassle by providing one box capable of distributing voice and data services to any location that has a POTS connection. Thanks to the standards put forth by the HPNA (Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, at www.homepna.org), the DSL2000 needs only two connections: one to the AC power outlet, the other to the phone jack carrying the voice and data signals.
For computers that need data connections, an HPNA interface is plugged into the phone jack. The computer then plugs into the Ethernet connection on the HPNA adapter. Other computers can be plugged in via the same method to phone jacks throughout the home or office.
Data is not the only thing that can be routed via HPNA devices; the DSL2000 also supports as many as four voice lines. A PNI (peripheral node interface) is placed at the phone jacks where a voice line is to be terminated. Each PNI can be configured to respond to a specific voice line. Calls to the office can be picked up only by that PNI, while calls to the home number can be received by PNIs elsewhere.
The PNIs are also equipped with a pass-through port to enable other PNIs, for voice lines, or HPNA-based data ports to be connected to the same phone jack. As many as 16 HPNA devices can be added to the local DSL2000, and a built-in Ethernet port is available for LAN connectivity.
DSL2000, available by month's end. ShareGate, (775) 850-4000; fax (775) 850-4104. www.sharegate.com.
Vpacket Communications
6100
Vpacket Communications entered the market realizing that every customer values voice quality. Its 6100 line of products is geared toward the small to midsize enterprise or branch office and offers features designed to support voice traffic.
The 6100 is an SDSL device that offers as many as 12 voice ports, which should be plenty for most small offices. But Vpacket doesn't stop with an abundance of voice ports; voice quality is what the 6100 is all about. The device monitors each call that passes through it for quality and creates an MOS (mean opinion score), which is available for review by the customer.
Vpacket supports a wide variety of voice-compression types -- G.711, G.723, G.726 and G.729 -- which are user-selectable. Instead of relying entirely upon each user's ear, the 6100 provides constant quality checking that lets enterprise customers monitor voice quality and make adjustments as needed. This also provides an added method of notifying an IT department of problems within the network because jitter and delay will degrade the quality of voice calls.
To manage all the voice calls and data that could potentially traverse the 6100 at any given time, Vpacket uses IP over SDSL and segments the bandwidth on a TCP-port basis. This provides better control and assures delivery of all traffic--voice and data--to its final destination.
6100, available now. Vpacket Communications, (866) 872-2538, (408) 571-7900; fax (408) 433-5870. www.vpacket.com.
Send your comments on this article to Darrin Woods at dwoods@nwc.com.
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