Cray Communications Inc, the Annapolis Junction, Maryland-based unit of Cray Electronics Holdings Plc, has introduced the MatchBox Router, which it claims is the industry’s lowest-cost router for the multiple branch office local area network communications. The product supports Integrated Services Digital Network and Frame Relay services, as well as leased lines, and uses home-grown V.42bis compression technology, giving a typical compression ratio of 4:1. Unlike boundary routers the Matchbox can also be used for linking small office local area networks together in point-to-point networks, as well as to their network core, it says. On the routing side, the offering is said to route Internet Protocol via Routing Information Protocol and support for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Novell Internet Packet Exchange is routed via Routing Information Protocol with WatchDog spoofing to save wide area network costs while, from the security angle, it is equipped with Routing Information Protocol/Service Access Point filters. Bridging is achieved via the Spanning Tree protocol, says Cray, with incorporated spoofing. Turning to the local and wide area network components, the product features one Ethernet connection via 10Base-T or AUI and two wide area network connections. Each of the wide area network connections is of a multi-type physical interface, carrying V.24, V.35, V.36, X.21 and EIA 530. Moreover, says Cray, the Link Protocol can be selected from Point-to-Point Protocol or Link Access Protocol Balanced, LAPB, at the user’s discretion. Finally, the device is said to be configurable and manageable via Simple Network Management Protocol, while monitoring can reportedly be carried out from a terminal connected locally, or via Telnet. It will be out this quarter for less than ú1,300, it says.
