Madge Networks Inc has added enhancements to its flagship Smart Ringswitch Token Ring backbone switch. Chief among the new additions is a Madge-developed technology dubbed Source Route Transparent Plus, designed to simplify the segmentation of rings: specifically, it combines source route bridging and transparent bridging frame forwarding techniques, as well as enabling the same ring number to be used on multiple ports. Also, to help with congestion, Active Broadcast Control has been introduced. This is said to use intelligent techniques to reduce unnecessary network traffic – for example, NetBIOS name caching. Support for all of the RMON standard groups has also been added. The San Jose, California-based company has also introduced a new fiber Token Ring module, and says that the Smart Ringswitch can now handle any combination of fiber or Shielded Twisted Pair/Unshielded Twisted Pair port modules. There is now also an FDDI, and 155Mbps Asynchronous Transfer Mode uplink modules. The FDDI and four-port fiber modules are shipping now for $5,950 and $4,450 respectively, while the RMON implementation will ship this month for $1,450. The ATM module is slated for release next year for $5,950.
