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SMC's New Product Line Makes Metro Access Networking Practical

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 09:00 CST

SMC Networks (www.smc.com) announced today a new line of metropolitan networking access products that will give service providers an opportunity to deploy more direct-to-building and direct-to-consumer connections for access to high-speed fiber optic backbone cable runs. Beginning in December 2006, SMC's new TigerAccess™ series of Metro networking switches and accessories will make it easy for service providers to connect -- and to maintain connections for -- their clients.

Flexibility and ease of installation and maintenance are key when service providers consider deployment in new locations -- rural or urban. SMC's new TigerAccess products accommodate different connectivity scenarios with models supporting VDSL2, Fiber Optic, and copper Ethernet connectivity, all in the same form-factor with interchangeable accessory parts. Easy to set up -- they simply plug in to the fiber backbone at the curb or central office and supply Ethernet, Fiber, or VDSL connectivity to the client or customer -- they're also easy to maintain. All three stackable access switches are designed with fail-safe redundancy and the same easy-access hot-swappable component parts -- including AC or DC modules and hot-swappable fans, right up front -- so that reliability is high, "at the street" maintenance is straightforward and fast, and stock of spare parts is kept to a minimum.

"SMC has seen great success on the CPE side of broadband access, and our service provider customer base is looking to us to take the reliability and robustness of product that we provide inside the building another step back in the line -- to provide them with a range of broadband access products outside the building," said SMC product manager, Iain Kenney. "We took the move seriously, and built into the product designs the features that these service providers need in order to succeed: performance, reliability out of the box, redundancy and swap-ability."

These new products add to SMC's service provider offerings a suite of access equipment that maximize bandwidth provisioning options to the home, to the MDU (Multi-Dwelling Unit) and to businesses, making expansion practical for today's service providers. And, with two slots for Combo Gigabit uplinks (RJ-45/SFP) -- and the future availability of cutting-edge GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network), and CWDM (Course Wavelength Division Multiplexor) connectivity modules, SMC's state-of-the-art solutions for broadband access provide the ultimate in flexible, expandable standards-compliant technology with high reliability, quality of service, interoperability, ease of use, and the bandwidth required to handle today's triple play: voice, video and data service.

"Service providers, large and small, need solutions that open opportunities for them to provide more services and content -- and that requires bandwidth," added Kenney. "The closer the bandwidth can get to the home, the better the quality.

Each of the three models in the initial TigerAccess Metro Networking family offers unique benefits suited to different application scenarios, giving service providers the choice to tailor installations to maximize potential. In a neighborhood MxU or cul-de-sac installation, copper Ethernet will go the distance with economy; a metropolitan area network might do better with the fiber switch, to connect businesses and cover greater distances (to 70km) without degradation; and in many neighborhoods, apartment applications and hotels, the ability to provide broadband seamlessly over existing phone lines makes VDSL2 the switch of choice. For a service provider, having all of those switches in the arsenal facilitates optimal setup -- having spare parts that work across all of those different types of switches makes for efficient repairs and lower parts inventory.

Easy to plug into a fiber backbone at the street, they're made for ongoing ease as well: repair crews can easily see diagnostics from the front panel, and power supplies and interfaces can be swapped out from the front as well. SMC's new TigerAccess Metro Networking products also incorporate key security and management features, such as: VLAN support (port-based, private, and Q-in-Q), QoS with eight levels of priority, multilink trunking, IGMP snooping (v1, v2 and v3), TACACS+/802.1x and ACLs. In addition to these features, SMC's TigerAccess product line adds features that service providers specifically seek, like per-port or per-VLAN bandwidth management, a 16k MAC address table, and a 32Mb packet buffer.

SMC Networks TigerAccess Metro Networking products will be available to service providers beginning in December 2006 to complement the company's full line of already available customer premise equipment. For more information about SMC's solutions for service providers, or any of the company's products, visit www.smc.com, or call 800-SMC-4YOU (800-762-4968).

Source: Business Wire

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