Cabletron Systems Inc has added asynchronous transfer mode switching to its SmartSwitch 6000 wiring closet switching chassis. The new SmartCell 6A000 ATM Switch Module, used with the SmartSwitch 6000, enables asynchronous connection to the corporate backbone as well as aggregate ATM, Ethernet and Fast Ethernet workgroup switches from multiple local area network locations. Cabletron says that much of the technology in the new product was sourced from its acquisition of privately-held ATM specialist ZeitNet Inc last June, primarily ZeitNet’s SmartCell ZX-250 ATM. The new Cabletron module has 15 switched asynchronous ports at 155 Mbps. There is additional capacity to reach 622Mbps as up to three SmartCell 6A000 modules can be combined in a single SmartSwitch 6000 chassis to provide up to 48 switched asynchronous ports in a single platform. The SmartCell 6A000 wide area network access capabilities include OC-3 and OC-12 to address varying customer bandwidth requirements. The new ATM module also features built-in LAN Emulation and IP-ATM services, and SNMP manageability using Cabletron’s Spectrum for Open Systems. The three units are Cabletron’s SmartCell 6A000-02 – for up to two I/O modules, or up to 7 ATM ports, costing $9,000; the -04 adds four input-output modules, or up to 15 ATM ports and costs $10,000. There is also an upgrade package for SmartCell customers. A SmartCell 6A000-02 to 6A000-04 module converter costs $1,300.
