Fore Systems Inc has won itself the chance to take its local area and wide area network access Asynchronous Transfer Mode technologies into the wide area. It has signed a three-faceted agreement with Northern Telecom Ltd which is designed to result in seamless end-to-end Asynchronous Transfer Mode systems. As the first part of the agreement, Northern Telecom will incorporate Fore’s ForeThought software into its Magellan Passport and Concorde switches. Functions covered by this include switched virtual circuits, Internet Protocol multicasting, local area network emulation, automatic network configuration, intelligent optimised routing, and link load balancing. Elements of Fore’s ForeView network management software will also be incorporated into Northern Telecom’s carrier network management system. The two will also work on joint development of new wide area network features and products, although they are not currently releasing details, and finally, they say they will initiate joint sales and marketing programmes to provide end-to-end Asynchronous Transfer Mode systems for carriers, cable companies, competitive access providers and end users.
