Nokia Data Communications has brought out a new network management modem for leased lines, enabling the whole of the modem environment to be controlled from a single point. The S-Series modem has been developed for IBM’s NetView environment and Cincom’s Net/Master: the company chose the de facto standard to build its modem on, as no CCITT or other standards are available. The S-Series claims to provide high-performance data transfer over multipoint and point-to-point connections from 2,400bps to 14,400bps, and an efficient network management system, which quickly identifies faults in the network and displays the information on an MS-DOS machine fitted with IBM NetView software, thus reducing the cost of system down-time. The modem communicates with the network management system via the LPDA-2 Link Problem Determination Aid remote control protocol, and in this way has full remote control over the modem, line, and Data Terminal Equipment environments. The LPDA-2 has modem diagnostic commands, including line analysis, modum and line status test and transmit-receive test; configuration commands which check modem parameters; and operation control commands which have data rate and dial back-up control features. A single port, four-wire synchronous leased line is the standard connection, but other options are available, such as a modem sharing function and a dial back-up operation over switched lines. At present, two versions of the S-Series are available from Nokia dealers, the S960 and S1440, both of which can be bought as stand-alone or rack-mounted types. The systems are being targeted at current and prospective NetView users, and Nokia hopes to sell 10,000 to 20,000 in the first year of marketing. Prices depend on the sort of network used, but will be about 30% more than the standard modem. At a later date, Nokia may extend the system’s availability to the X25 system.
