Vitalink Communications Corp, Fremont, California has announced a number of enhancements planned for its TransPath family of bridge and router internetworking systems, including router support for seven additional network protocols and IBM source routing, an X25 network interface and the Exterior Gateway Protocol. The new protocols include DECnet, OSI, GOSIP and various forms of Xerox XNS. The company also announced an agreement over several years with Touch Communications for the OSI-based technology that will be used in TransPath. The new enhancements position TransPath as a versatile local area network system for building large multi-vendor networks. Organisations typically route one to three heavily used network protocols and bridge the balance of their network traffic.
High network performance
Organisations route specific network traffic, either to create individual network domains, to build very large networks by linking bridged subnetworks together with routers, or to translate between subnetworks which use dissimilar local area network technologies like Token Ring and Ethernet. In contrast, with TransPath traffic is bridged to achieve high network performance, to simplify network management and to handle unroutable protocols like Digital’s LAT or IBM’s LU 6.2, claims Vitalink. The company has also enhanced its product by adding Exterior Gateway Protocol,EGP, IP security, socket level traffic control, and an updated release of the SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol, MIB II Management Information Base. These enhancements are designed to tailor the networking environment to the customers’ needs. The TransPath family consists of three members: the TransPath 530 and TransPath 550 are high performance bridge and routers for interconnecting Token Ring networks and the TransPath 350 interconnects Ethernetworks. All will be upgradable to support the new TransPath features via field installable software releases. TransPath uses a routing algorithm known as Shortest Path First to make path routing decisions. TransPath also provides true interoperability of Ethernet and Token Ring networks by translating the link layer protocols and enabling Ethernet devices to communicate on a peer level with Token Ring devices via TCP/IP. The new software will be shipped before year-end and orders will be taken starting this summer. DECnet, GOSIP and OSI routing capabilities will be available in 1991. Vitalink has also signed a technology agreement over several years with Touch Com munications of Campbell California, to provide access to its OSI communications software. Vitalink will market Touch’s OSI routing protocol with its TransPath systems. Vitalink says the migration to OSI can occur smoothly with a bridge and multiprotocol router like TransPath where OSI routing can concurrently operate with the bridging and routing of non-OSI protocols. Open Systems Interconnection will be available on products in 1991.
