Billerica, Massachusetts-based Wellfleet Communications Inc has unveiled the Access Stack Node, a routing system incorporating what is claimed to be a revolutionary stackable architecture. The Access Stack Node can, Wellfleet says, operate individually, or with up to four units stacked using Wellfleet’s Stack Packet Exchange expansion interconnect. The Access Stack Node is based on the technology developed for Wellfleet’s Backbone Node router-bridges and shares the same software and 68040 processor boards as the Backbone Concentrator Node and the Backbone Link Node. The Stack Packet Exchange is actually a single Parallel Packet Xpress channel as used in the Backbone Concentrator Node and Backbone Link Node. Each of the new type of nodes can support between two and eight interfaces, while a stack of four suports up to 24. Connections supported are dual Ethernet, dual Token Ring, dual Synchronous, Integrated Services Digital Network Basic Rate Interface, and single multimode Fibre Distributed Data Interface. Wellfleet says it is planning integrated Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Integrated Services Digital Network Primary Rate Interface connections in future versions, although no timescale was given. Routing and bridging protocol support includes TCP/IP, DECnet Phase IV, Open Systems Interconnection, Novell Inc Internet Package Exchange, Vines, AppleTalk Phase 2, Xerox Network Services, Native Mode local area network, Transparent Bridge, and Translation Bridge, while Source Route Bridging and DataLink Switching is also included for IBM SNA integration. For remote site integration, it is said to provide synchronous interfaces supporting Frame Relay, dial-up, X25, Point-to-Point Protocol, Switched Multimegabit Data Service, Asynchronous Transfer Mode DXL, and the company’s HDLC encapsulation. The Access Stack Node is available now from $4,000.
