Cisco Systems Inc has announced the availability of two new products for managing and scaling Asynchronous Transfer Mode networks. The company is shipping software based on the ATM Forum Private Network-to-Network Interface Phase 1 specification for routing calls through large ATM networks. It is claiming its Light-Stream 1010 is the first ATM switch to support the specification, for routing and switch-to-switch signaling. Cisco LightStream switches should be able to exchange not only reachability information, but quality of service metrics such as bandwidth, cell delays, burstiness, latency and jitter, says Cisco. The implementation is also said to support link load balancing connection admission control and access lists for ATM security. ATM-Director is a graphical, system-level ATM management application designed to simplify configuring, monitoring and troubleshooting a network of ATM switches, attached routers and local network switches. Cisco says that network managers can use ATM-Director, integrated with the CiscoView graphical device management application, to troubleshoot the network by using it to select any virtual connection on an ATM link and trace its entire path. The application also provides an interface for creating Permanent Virtual Circuits across an ATM network. ATM-Director costs $5,000 as an upgrade from the CiscoWorks management application suite. P-NNI software for the Cisco LightStream 1010 is $2,500.
