Ann Arbor, Michigan-headquartered Symplex Communications Inc has announced its entry into the internetworking market with a Wide Area access technology it calls Direct Route. Details are sketchy, but Direct Route is said to be a connection-orientated internetworking technology combining ATM-like scalable bandwidth with ISDN and Frame Relay. By connecting without intermediate nodes, local network data is transmitted directly, rather than through the multiple store-and-forward method of connection-less offerings, such as leased-line routers, says the company. According to Symplex, this point-to-point direct routing will offer faster data transfer between local networks than traditional internetworking systems; as an example, the company claims that while transporting a 3Mbps graphics file could take seven minutes using a leased-line router at 64Kbps, or twice that with a dial-up connection, Direct Route will route the same file in about 26 seconds. Symplex further claims that Direct Route is protocol-independent and features bandwidth aggregation, compression, and T1/E1-comparable performance. It reportedly offers Token Ring, Ethernet and SNA/serial support. The Direct Route technology will be implemented in a suite of wide area network access products to be released over the course of 1994. The company says it will reveal specific functionality, pricing and availability later this quarter.
Content from our partners
