WAN SYSTEMS & SERVICES Frame Relay Access Device: Yukon F rame relay's low overhead and versatility have made it an ideal candidate for branch-office WAN connectivity. It's one of the most widely deployed WAN media types, and its use is growing daily. With this popularity comes high expectations and a demand for excellence in frame relay access devices (FRADs) used at remote and branch offices. Advanced Computer Communication's Yukon beat the competition with its combination of price, performance and advanced routing features. Yukon is a well-designed small office/home office (SOHO)-based FRAD that routes IP and IPX traffic from 56 Kbps to T1's 1.544-Mbps speed between a company's branch offices, corporate sites or Internet service providers (ISPs). Yukon provides frame relay connectivity based on standards--making Yukon interoperable with a variety of routers--and supports the standard Stac LZS compression algorithm, which boosts Yukon's performance and allows for further interoperability. The FRAD's combination packet f iltering and its ability to create a mesh of remote-office locations lets a network operate in many highly versatile scenarios. Yukon even has the ability to optimize bandwidth for further fine-tuning the enterprise network. Yukon , $1,395 to $1,995, Advanced Computer Communications, (800) 444-7854, www.acc.com Honorable Mentions: Vanguard 300 , starts at $1,299, Motorola, (800) 487-1456, www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG InRoute/D , $795 to $1,395, Sourcecom Corp., (888) 588-0555, www.sourcecom.com Awards Table of Contents

Updated April 24, 1997