Enhancements Make ES3528M V2 and ES3528M V2-DC Ideal for Managing Converged Services

Hsinchu, Taiwan - 16 December 2011. Edge-Core Networks (www.edge-core.com), a professional networking solution provider offering a complete range of enterprise-level and service provider/carrier Ethernet networking equipment and services to partners around the world, today announced the launch of the ES3528M V2, a Layer 2 Fast Ethernet standalone switch consisting of 24 100BASE-TX ports and 4 Gigabit combo (RJ-45/SFP) ports, as well as the ES3528M V2-DC, an identical switch using DC rather than AC power.

The upgraded switches are designed to enable service providers and wireline carriers to deliver managed converged services such as voice, video, and data over Ethernet and IP networks. In addition, using IP clustering, each switch is able to manage a virtual stack of up to 36 switches with a single IP address, thus allowing customers to maximize switch value and performance. Members of Edge-Core Networks' ECS 3500 Series of innovative, cost-efficient Layer 2 Fast Ethernet switches, the ES3528M V2 and ES3528M V2-DC deliver flexible Quality of Service (QoS), advanced Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM), and support for extended temperature range environments among other carrier-friendly features.

"The new versions of the ES3528M add a number of enhancements requested by our customers, including support for IPv6 management and digital diagnostic monitoring (DDM) for SFP transceivers," explained Garfield Hsieh, Edge-Core Networks' PLM Manager. "We have doubled the size of the MAC address table, packet buffer, access control list table, and number of priority queues as well as increasing the number of VLANs supported from 256 to 4000 entries. In addition we use 800 MHz CPU to power the switch engine with doubled memory and flash space. The other key difference is support for expanded temperature range. Both the ES3528M V2 and ES352M V2-DC migrated to EdgeCOS, Edge-Core Networks' robust, native software platform, too, which helps our customers deliver superior performance in both today and tomorrow's networks."

Key Features and Benefits:

• Service Monitoring and Management
  Support for IEEE 802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) and OAM functions and mechanisms for Ethernet-based networks (ITU-T Y.1731) mean service providers can monitor end-to-end services, identify connectivity and performance issues, and isolate problems from a remote location without having to dispatch an engineer onsite. The switch also provides the capability to monitor service availability, including delayed and dropped packets, for verifying SLA conformance for billing purposes, and providing advance indication of performance degradation before a service outage occurs.
  
• Enhanced Security
  To provide port security, the ES3528M V2 and the ES3528M V2-DC allow access to ports based on MAC address, limits the number of devices using a port, and protects against MAC flooding attacks. In addition, Access Control Lists (ACLs) can be used to restrict access to sensitive network resources by denying packets based on source and destination MAC address, IP addresses, or TCP/UDP ports. The switch also supports private VLANS that can isolate edge ports.
  
• IPv6 Management
  The switches support Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), a suite of protocols and standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to replace IPv4's impending problem of IP address exhaustion, offering benefits such as dual protocol stacking, allowing IPv4 and IPv6 to co-exist in the same device and network and tunneling, allowing IPv6 packets to traverse through legacy IPv4 networks.
  
• Continuous Availability
  Support for G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection Switching (ERPS) enables a network to detect and recover from incidents without impacting users. This loop avoidance allows the switch to meet the most demanding quality and continuous availability requirements--and when problems do occur, rapid recovery time is as low as 50ms.