Foundry Networks will unveil high-end routing switches for service providers at next week's ComNet 2000 trade show in Washington, D.C.
The switches can move up to 256 gigabits per second through their switching fabrics, and they can forward up to 90 million IP packets per second, according to the company. The switches include a four-slot chassis called the NetIron 400 and an eight-slot version, the NetIron 800.
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Foundry computes the 256G bit/sec switching capacity by adding up the 32G bit/sec of each of the eight modules in the eight-slot version. The 90M packets/sec forwarding rate is based on the line rate of a Gigabit Ethernet port, 1.49M packets/sec, multiplied by the 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports supported in the NetIron 800.
Foundry says the devices can be used to connect ISP networks to the rest of the Internet. Through the Internet routing protocols Border Gateway Protocol and Open Shortest Path First, a NetIron can connect to Internet core routers. On the other side, it can provide Gigabit Ethernet connections to LAN switches.
The new switches will compete against products like Juniper Networks' M40 and Cisco's GSR.
Foundry is still working on some of the modules for the new chassis. Packet-over-Sonet blades for OC-3 and OC-12 rates are scheduled to ship along with the chassis in March. OC-3 ATM and DS-3 modules are scheduled to ship in the second and third quarters of this year, respectively. The NetIron 400 starts at $28,000, and the NetIron 800 starts at $34,000.
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