Hypercom First to Combine SNA, LAN and Voice onto Single T-1 Trunk Line

Router Plus Protects Legacy Investments, Reduces Telco Line Costs

PHOENIX, Ariz., January XX, 1994 -- Hypercom, Inc. today announced a major advance in network consolidation, introducing the Router Plus, the first mixed protocol branch node capable of combining SNA, LAN and voice traffic onto a single T-1 trunk line. The Hypercom Router Plus not only protects SNA hardware investments, but also greatly reduces recurring leased line costs, simplifies network management and provides a smooth migration path to future technologies. It .

The Router Plus -- comprising a router, multiplexer, protocol converter, integral DSU/CSU and dial backup modem -- eliminates the multiple access devices and parallel networks Fortune 500-type companies now use to independently transport SNA, LAN and voice traffic between branch offices. Instead, these companies now can use a single device to consolidate their legacy networks with their LAN internetworking and PBX facilities.

"Despite the attention being given to higher speed WAN links such as ATM, most corporations today can reduce their branch office telco costs by as much as 60 percent by just consolidating their existing data streams to eliminate redundancies," said Paul Wickre, Hypercom's director of marketing and sales. "The Router Plus gives branch offices the single premise device they need to effectively consolidate all their network traffic -- legacy SNA, LAN and voice from a PBX -- to a single T-1."

According to Wickre, 70 percent of the branch office networks in use today operate at 19.2 kbps or less, creating a large opportunity for network consolidation by aggregating multiple applications at 56 kbps or higher.

Because of the modular configuration of Hypercom's family of Integrated Enterprise Network (IEN) products, which support a wide variety of protocols, access methods and network topologies, the Router Plus capability can also be added to all current and future IEN products through the simple addition of two plug-in cards. IEN products employ a parallel processing architecture with dedicated processors for each discreet task that effectively solves virtually any mixed traffic network application.

Transparent Transport

The Router Plus builds on Hypercom's proven success in overcoming the fundamental incompatibility between SNA and the internetworking protocols to provide transparent data transport for SNA, LAN and voice traffic. The Router Plus is able to add support for voice connections through its ability to maintain time-slot-based circuit paths in addition to priority-controlled packet paths. When voice slots are not in use, however, they are released to support additional packet traffic.

Hypercom's mixed-protocol technology consolidates SNA and LAN protocols in native mode without the use of tunneling or encapsulation by offering a protocol-independent, connectionless transport mechanism. This transport method lets SNA behave as if it has established a direct connection between front-end and terminal controllers while allowing TCP/IP and other protocols to establish their own sessions and transmit their data independently. Unlike tunneling or encapsulation techniques, each protocol sees a dedicated network, and is not subordinated to any other protocol.

The Router Plus combines predetermined and dynamic routing, providing SNA with the feel of a leased-line network, while allowing the Router Plus to discover additional paths in the event of link congestion or failure. As a result, the Router Plus offers very fast re-routing without data loss and with minimum overhead. Routing protocols, such as RIP and OSPF, are supported and can use all possible routes within the network and build their own routing tables.

Like all IEN products, the Router Plus features SNMP configuration and management through Hypercom's Transparent Network Management System (XNMS) for single-point control and monitoring of SNA, LAN and WAN network elements.

Pricing and Availability

The Hypercom Router Plus is available in a number of configurations tailored to specific customer needs, and Router Plus capability can be added to existing IEN products through the addition of two plug-in cards. A typical Router Plus configuration with three SNA ports, a single Ethernet or Token Ring port, a four-wire PBX interface, a single T-1 V.35 interface, fractional T-1 capability and dial back up is available now for $12,500.

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