Foundry Debuts Suite Of Advanced, Lower-Cost Routers For Service Providers

Foundry Networks has announced a series of new routers for service providers designed to reduce the costs of delivering advanced IP, Ethernet and MPLS VPN services for converged networks, while preserving investments in existing SONET/SDH optical systems.

Foundry claims that the new additions to its NetIron line dramatically reduce costs for service providers building multi-service MPLS networks. The company says that the new routers are 90 to 95 percent lower in cost than existing similarly featured routers, and that the new products will help spur faster and broader deployment of multi-service MPLS networks.

The new products are:

Foundry also announced the Velocity Management 2 (VM2) processor module for the NetIron 400, 800 and 1500 chassis-based aggregation and edge routers. The new module performs the MPLS forwarding function on the NetIron 400, 800, 1500. Systems configured with a Velocity Management module support the base set of metro switched Ethernet and routed IP services plus the advanced MPLS Layer 2 VPLS and VLL services."Ethernet, VPNs and converged IP network services are the growth services of the future. Service providers must ready their networks to deliver these services or risk losing this profitable business to alternative providers," Bobby Johnson, Foundry's Chairman and CEO said in a statement. "Our NetIron multi-service routers present an edge-to-core solution that is a fraction of the cost of current solutions and will help to accelerate the deployment of this vital infrastructure."