Santa Clara, California-based 3Com Corp has launched the Aperture point-of-presence system and the AccessBuilder 4000 ISDN remote access server. The company said the products complement its NetBuilder Remote Office and NetBuilder II with wide area network extender offerings, as well as the ISDN kit it has acquired through AccessWorks Communications Inc and Sonix Communications Ltd, and enable it to deliver the industry’s first complete end-to-end system for wide area remote connections. The Aperture II integrates ISDN terminal adaptor, ISDN bridge-routing and analogue modem functions into a single system, said 3Com. Designed for use by network service providers at their point of presence, the offering can support up to 10 Primary Rate Interfaces and up to 240 ports, while the terminal adaptor function supports V.120 rate adaption for use with leading ISDN terminal adaptors, said the firm. All features are said to be software-configurable, and can be provisioned, monitored and upgraded through software downloads. Finally, Aperture II’s Intel Corp 80960-based data network gateway provides TCP/IP communications over wide and local area networks and the Internet, said the company. The AccessBuilder 4000 ISDN remote access server supports dial-in remote connections over ISDN Basic Rate Interface lines as well as analogue phone lines, and provides multiprotocol bridging and routing for both client-to-local area network and local area to local area network extensions, said 3Com. The chassis accommodates any two of the following: four-port ISDN BRI modules; eight-port asynchronous modules for 115.2Kbps connections; eight-port 57.6Kbps asynchronous modules; and a single T1/E1 synchronous module. Out now in the US, it costs $3,500 for the base model, which includes pre-loaded ISDN system software, an Ethernet local area network interface, remote client software and Transcend AccessBuilder Manager. Pricing for each four-port ISDN Basic Rate Interface module is $3,500. Additional versions, certifying ISDN in other countries and supporting Token Ring, are promised later this year.
