Feature

Network-side story

Here’s a quick look at what is on offer in routing, switching, wireless and cabling in terms of features and the latest developments to help you choose appropriately. By Rishiraj Verma

The router race

Once upon a time, quite long ago, routers were used to decide the path of a packet and then move it from a host to the correct destination in a network. While they may still be doing the same job, routers today have become more important, taking into consideration the fast growing number of networks and their spiking needs related to the convergence of voice, data and video.

Today, they come built in with essential qualities—security, reliability and inter-operability. Security is the top priority for vendors and consumers alike, it is only natural that vendors produce routers with increasingly robust security features.

The market has grown remarkably and this has resulted in vendors embedding other important features such as load-balancing et al in entry-level routers to target SMBs who were earlier unattended due to the high cost of feature-rich routers. There’s a router for everybody—small companies included.

The switching scene

While routers may be used to take the shortest path to send packets to their destination, switches send data packets to individual clients within a local area network. Now, along with routers, the features for switches too, are seeing some speedy growth. The trend seems to be going the way of wire-speed firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, privacy management systems – the works. Some of the other security related features include denial of service protection and end-point security.

It appears that security, like the routing market, is equally important here. All this, a result of the ever increasing, ever threatening attacks on corporate networks.

Talk about switches and you can’t miss the buzzword–Gigabit switching. Triple interface switching 10 / 100 / 1000 Mbps has gradually come to be a standard offering in the switching arena. Port density has also gone up, with 24 and 48 port switches being made available at lower costs to SMBs.

Layer 2 and 3 switches are essential for all companies regardless of their size. However, taking the cost factor into consideration, Layer 4 switches are mostly deployed by large enterprises for content switching.

Cable babble

Cables forms the vertebrae of IT infrastructure. Despite that, this segment of the networking category is one that is often overlooked.

True, the wireless segment has been quick on the uptake, but it hasn’t been able to mar the growth of the wired market. The reasons for this may range from price to complexity.

2006 saw 10G over Copper emerge as a contender in structured cabling for the large enterprise. Meanwhile Cat6 has come to be seen as the standard for cabling in both mid-sized and large organisations. The cabling segment takes care of SOHO users with Cat5e. India has always favoured UTP cabling and the introduction of 10G Ethernet supporting UTP cabling has only furthered its cause.

Fibre has made its presence felt and the fact that a large number of universities across the nation and the defence sector are both adopting fibre proves its ongoing utility. There have been developments in terms of the OM3 and OM3+ multimode fibre that support bandwidth of 2000/500 MHz/km and 6000/500 MHz/km respectively.

The cabling market too, has become feature oriented of late. Security seems to be the driving force here as well. Other features include the automatic device discovery to help network managers discover computers, IP telephones, et al through a managed switch.

Through the air

Organisations from all verticals have been smitten by the wireless bug, and this has not happened just in the recent past. Be it wireless routers, access points or WLANs, there has been a growing acceptance of wireless products. The 802.11 standard lives on. 802.11g equipment for WLANs has taken over from 802.11b equipment. 802.11n promises to deliver throughput rates at a minimum of 100mbps in the near future.

Wireless routers are also a growing trend in the Indian market. With the introduction of wireless routers, the network may be a rendered a a tad more vulnerable, but newer features such as extra levels of embedded security try to fix this hole.

As far as a complete wireless solution is concerned, identity management, security, multi-tier mobility and location management are the key features to be looked at. The increasing need for mobility has been the chief factor for the growth of the wireless products segment. In the context of the rising numbers of laptops, smartphones and such other handheld devices, and their subsequent demand for wireless connectivity, it is natural for the wireless industry in India to grow.

Switches
Product	Features	Price (in Rs)	Contact details
Cisco’s Catalyst Express 500	Cisco Catalyst Express 500 Series family of Layer 2-managed Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet switches offers non-blocking, wire-speed performance and provides a network foundation optimized for data, wireless, and IP communications. The Cisco Catalyst Express 500 also offers options for Power over Ethernet (PoE) to help reduce the cost and complexity of IP communications and enable new uses for the Ethernet network.	Rs 47,700 to Rs 1,20,000	Contact: Rupa Roy Telephone: 9820546536 E-mail: ruparoy@cisco.com Website: cisco.com
Enterasys Networks’ SecureStack A2	Enterasys Networks’ SecureStack A2 stackable switch family delivers layer 2 switching in a single stack with up to 384 10/100 ports with 16 gigabit uplinks. Each SecureStack A2 switch has two mini-GBIC (SFP) ports and two fixed 10/100/1000 ports. A single stack can be comprised of any combination of SecureStack A2 switches allowing a mixture of 24- and 48-port 10/100, 100Base-FX and Power-over-Ethernet ports to be linked to the network core via copper, multimode fiber and/or single-mode fiber.	Rs 27,000 (including taxes)	Contact: Shriram Gadre Telephone: 9820907824 E-mail: sgadre@enterasys.com Website: enterasys.com
Allied Telesyn’s Rapier 48i	Allied Telesis’ Rapier ‘i’ series of 10/100Mbps Layer 3 switches come with the AlliedWare operating system, which includes Layer 3 IP static routing, RIP, RIPv2,VRRP and OSPFv2 routing protocols. It supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging, IGMPv2, 802.1p traffic prioritisation of packets at Layer 3 and Layer 4, and broadcast and multicast traffic control.	Rs 1,06,164	Contact: Gopal Sapharu Telephone: 9884081978 E-mail: Sapharu_Gopal@alliedtelesyn.com Website: alliedtelesyn.com
Asus’s GX 1024 P	Asus’ Giga X 1024P is a layer-2 smart switch for SMB networks. This switch provides two extra Gigabit ports; with two transmit queues for each port, and supports ASUS CNM-centralised network management which is a Web-based management tool. It incorporates the auto MDI/MDIX and auto speed and duplex mode negotiation functions. It complies with the IEEE 802.3x and 802.3u standards, and incorporates the IEEE 802.3x flow control support for 10/100 Mbps full duplex communication.	Rs 8,000	Contact: Altaf Ansari Telephone: 22 40058888 E-mail: media_india@asus.com Website: in.asus.com
Aten’s LCD KVM Switch (CL1216)	Aten’s LCD KVM Switch has an integrated KVM console featuring a 15" or 17" LCD monitor in a 1U high rack mountable slideaway housing, dual consoles support simultaneous viewing and control select one or the other via OSD and disy chain up to 31 additional CS1208 or CS1216 units and control up to 512 computers.Its other features include DDC emulation of the LCD monitor; internal power built in and two level password security.	Rs 1,00,000 and above	Contact: Nitin Naik Telephone: 20 24251594 Email: nitin@cubixindia.com Website: cubixindia.com
SonicWALL’s TotalSecure 25 Switch	SonicWALL TotalSecure 25 Switch is based on SonicWALL’s PRO 1260 with an integrated 24-port Ethernet switch. It combines deep packet firewall inspection capabilities with three independent security zones: WAN, Optional Port and 24-port LAN. The Optional Port can either be configured as a DMZ or secondary LAN. It also supports gateway anti virus, intrusion prevention service, spyware protection and content filtering.	Rs 1,40,000 plus taxes as applicable	Contact: Shubha Prasanna Telephone: 80-22275308 Extn: 304/305 Email:sprasanna@sonicwall.com Website: sonicwall.com
D-Link’s DES3026	D-Link’s DES3026 comes with four selections of port densities. It has gigabit uplinks for server/backbone attachments. It has open slots for optional uplink modules and choices of Ethernet and Gigabit copper/fiber uplinks. Some of its security features are 802.1x port-based/MAC-based access control and external RADIUS server support. For traffic monitoring and bandwidth control features such as traffic segmentation, 802.3ad link aggregation (Port Trunks), GUI traffic monitoring, RMON support and port mirroring are provided	Rs 12,500	Contact: Sanjay Sehgal Telephone: 22-30616666 E-mail: sales@dlink.co.in Website: dlink.co.in
SMC Networks’ TigerSwitch SMC8042L2	SMC Networks’ TigerSwitch SMC8042L2 is a manageable gigabit switch with 24 auto-MDIX 10/100/1000 ports in a 1RU chassis which includes four combo ports (RJ45/SFP). The SMC8024L2 has a 48 Gbps switch fabric, having features such as QoS with support for four priority levels, with weighted fair queuing and L2/3/4 IP precedence. Several of these ports can be joined together to form a group link using link aggregation (LACP) to provide higher bandwidth of up to 16 Gbps. It supports up to 256 port-based or tagged VLANs with QinQ support and GVRP LAN registration spanning tree per VLAN.	Rs 19,500 approximately	Contact: Sanjay Kakar Telephone: : 11 66401384/ 66401385 E-mail: sanjaykakar@acctonei-en.com Website: smc-asia.com
Dax’s DX-5050MG	Dax DX-5050MG is a 48-port 10/100BaseTX Layer 2 SNMP-managed Stackable switch, with two Gigabit copper stack ports and two additional Gigabit Ethernet Uplink ports. Uplink ports include shared 2 x 10/100/1000BaseT and 2 x unpopulated miniGBIC (SFP) ports. It provides IEEE 802.1p QOS through four level priority queues. It enables backup loops between switches and provides fault tolerance from incorrect wiring, and supports multiple spanning tree and rapid spanning tree for better redundancy. Dax DX-5050MG supports 802.1x port based authentication.	Rs 70,380	Contact: Surendar K Telephone: 44 2432 3558/3557/ 1-800-4255-Dax(329) E-mail: help@daxnetworks.com Website: daxnetworks.com
Nortel’s Business Ethernet Switch 100 Series	The Nortel Business Ethernet Switch (BES) 100 family has four products with different port configurations. BES110-24T: 24 x 10/100 Mbps ports + 2 Dual Personality SFPor 10/100/1000 Mbps ports, BES110-48T: 48 x 10/100 Mbps ports + 2 Dual Personality SFP or 10/100/1000 Mbps ports, BES120-24T PWR: 24 x 10/100 Mbps ports + 2 Dual Personality SFP or 10/100/1000 Mbps ports + PoE on ports 1 - 12, BES120-48T PWR: 48 x 10/100 Mbps ports + 2 Dual Personality SFP or 10/100/1000 Mbps ports + PoE on ports 1 - 24. All four products come in a standard 1U form factor and are rack-mountable. They also include support for a recessed reset button as well as a DB9 Console port for local management access.	Rs 20,000 onwards	Contact: Shubhra Chadda Telephone: 80 66278202 E-mail: shubhra@nortel.com Website: nortel.com

Routers
Product	Features	Price (in Rs)	Contact details
Enterasys Networks’ XSR-Security Router	The XSR Security Router has two 10/100 Ethernet LAN interfaces, two NIM slots, eight MB onboard flash memory, 32 MBDRAM, dedicated VPN accelerator, compact flash slot and power supply (external); bundled with Enterasys Operating System (EOS) IP routing services 100 Mbps VPN throughput, 180 Mbps Firewall throughput and WAN functionality in one device. It supports a Command Line Interface, SNMP integration, and NetSight Atlas management.	Rs 71,000 (including taxes)	Contact: Shriram Gadre Telephone: 9820907824 E-mail: sgadre@enterasys.com Website: enterasys.com
Asus’ RX 3042h	ASUS RX3042H, a dual WAN router provides performance, security and redundancy for the network. Users can take advantage of two cost-effective broadband solutions to increase bandwidth and also provide for redundant connectivity. Intelligent storage support via USB allows users to share information. Its other features include a 4-port FE switch, 1-port WAN + 1-port DMZ, or 2-port WAN, WAN load balancing with automatic failover, Wire-speed, firewall and USB storage support for file sharing.	Rs 8,850	Contact: Altaf Ansari Telephone: 22 40058888 E-mail: media_india@asus.com Website: in.asus.com
SonicWALL TZ 150	The SonicWALL TZ 150 Series integrates deep packet inspection firewall, IPSec 3DES/AES VPN and 802.11b/g secure wireless capabilities with support for gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention and content filtering to deliver true layered security. Every TZ 150 Series appliance supports the SonicWALL portfolio of security services and can be managed remotely as part of a multi-firewall and VPN environment using SonicWALL’s Global Management System.	Rs 35,000 plus taxes as applicable	Contact: Shubha Prasanna Telephone: 80-22275308 Extn: 304/305 Email:sprasanna@sonicwall.com Website: sonicwall.com
D-Link’s DRO 250i	The DRO-250i uses XScale architecture (ARM core with NPEs) from Intel (IXP425) and the hardware is designed with one Ethernet LAN and four WAN interfaces (Ethernet WAN/DMZ, V.35, ISDN BRI & AUX). V.35 is the primary interface for WAN connectivity providing bandwidth up to 2 Mbps. ISDN BRI is the secondary WAN interface which can be used as a 128 kbps back-up line. It offers functions, such as secure Internet, intranet and extranet access with VPN and firewall protection. DRO-250i supports both Static Routing and dynamic routing (RIP V1& V2, OSPF). D-Link Multi-Service Access Routers support a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall, IP Sec based VPN and authentication.	Rs 24,500	Contact: Sanjay Sehgal Telephone: 22-30616666 E-mail: sales@dlink.co.in Website: dlink.co.in
NetDevices’ SG-4	NetDevices SG-4 Services Gateway has a modular four-slot chassis that is one rack-unit (RU) in height, and supports a range of services. It offers the same performance even when multiple services are running. With ModuLive software modularity, as new services are added or existing ones modified within a NetDevices SG-4, there is zero disruption to other services in operation. With its LifelineTM management framework, the NetDevices SG-4 provides continuous access to system management. All services can be managed remotely while appearing to be local, thereby eliminating the need for on-site intervention and delivering substantial operational cost savings.	Rs 2,25,000	Contact: Uday Birje Telephone:80- 6667 638388 E-mail: ubirje@netd.com Website: netd.com
ZyXEL P-336M	ZyXEL P-336M XtremeMIMO broadband router featuring 108 Mbps Super G Wireless and MIMO (multiple input multiple output) smart antenna technology provides solution for speed and coverage. It eliminates dead zones by using smart antenna technology. Backwards compatible with any IEEE 802.11b/g Wi-Fi certified device.It enables you to run multiple applications without degrading the quality of the Internet experience. With its built-in StreamEngine technology, the ZyXEL P-336M automatically prioritises delay sensitive traffic. The P-336M has a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall and VPN pass-through creating a secure connection at any remote location. Policies can be defined on the ZyXEL P-336M providing customised filters.	Rs 9,350	Contact: Rakesh Singh Telephone: 9818148886 E-mail: rakesh.singh@zyxel.com Website: zyxel.in
Dax’s DX-1841	DX-1841 is uses a 200MHz MPC8250 processor and supports routing speed of up to 90 to 110Kpps providing QoS, security, and network integration. It has four high-speed serial-port slots, two expansion slots, and two 10/100Mbps Ethernet port. It allows you to mix and match available modules on a single chassis. The VPN module can optionally be plugged in the Internal Bus Socket slot of the routing platform. DX-1841 routers support IPsec and multiple protocols (such as L2TP and GRE). It provides backup in multiple forms through ISDN or PSTN. DX-1841 routers can provide guaranteed bandwidth for various network services, with provision for queue management and scheduling.	Rs 55,980	Contact: Surendar K Telephone: 44 2432 3558/3557/ 1-800-4255-Dax(329) E-mail: help@daxnetworks.com Website: daxnetworks.com
Nortel’s Business Secure Router 222	Nortel Business Secure Router 222 supports sites of up to 50 users. It can be used to connect an internal network to other business locations and have high-speed, always-on access to the Internet. To gain Internet access, you only need to subscribe to DSL (digital subscriber line) or cable from an Internet service provider, and use the DSL or cable modem that goes with that service. The Business Secure Router 222 provides the secure link from the internal company network to the Internet access service, off-site employees and other business locations.	Rs 20,000 onwards	Contact: Shubhra Chadda Telephone: 80 66278202 E-mail: shubhra@nortel.com Website: nortel.com

Wireless Routers
Product	Features	Price (in Rs)	Contact details
Cisco’s ISR 850 with wireless	Cisco’s ISR 850 with wireless has connectivity with a Stateful Inspection Firewall and IP Security (IPSec) VPN support for small offices, a 4-port 10/100 switch, a WLAN 802.11b/g option with a single fixed antenna and remote management capabilities through Web-based tools and Cisco IOS Software.	Rs 24,000 to Rs 36,000	Contact name: Rupa Roy Telephone: 9820546536 E-mail: ruparoy@cisco.com Website: cisco.com
Asus’ WL 520g	Asus’ WL-520g wireless router can register wireless-capable devices with a press of the EZSetup Button and use the EZSetup Wizard. It can be used to share an Internet connection. Its other features include data transmission, Standard compliant with IEEE 802.11g, 64/128 bit WEP encryption, driver upgradeable to support WPA and 125 High Speed Mode. It supports Windows XP/98/ME/2000, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).	Rs 5,000	Contact: Altaf Ansari Telephone: 22 40058888 E-mail: media_india@asus.com Website: in.asus.com
SonicWALL’s TZ 170 SP Wireless	SonicWALL’s TZ 170 SP Wireless has features including 802.11b/g wireless, automated failover or fail back technologies and a deep packet inspection firewall. The TZ 170 SP Wireless ensures constant access to critical data on both the wired and wireless LANs by automatically failing over to either a second WAN connection or an integrated analog modem should the primary connection fail. Dual broadband WAN connections plus a built-in analog modem and secure 802.11b/g wireless make the TZ 170 SP Wireless to offer automated broadband-to-broadband-to-analog WAN redundancy.	Rs 91,760 plus taxes as applicable	Contact: Shubha Prasanna Telephone: 80-22275308 Extn: 304/305 Email:sprasanna@sonicwall.com Website: sonicwall.com
D-Link’s DI-524	D-Link DI-524 Router comes with a 802.11g wireless LAN interface which uses a Cable/DSL modem for Internet access. It supports a 54 Mbps WLAN and has a 10/100BASE-TX port for the DSL/cable modem connection Its WAN port supports PPPoE for Internet dial-up mode. D-Link DI-524 wireless Router 4 built-in 10/100BASE-TX switch ports with auto.MDI/MDIX support. D-Link DI-524 comes with internal firewall. Firewall features include NAT with VPN pass-through, MAC/IP/URL filtering, domain blocking and scheduling. This router has a Web-based configuration with setup wizard for quick installation.	Rs 2,500	Contact: Sanjay Sehgal Telephone: 22-30616666 E-mail: sales@dlink.co.in Website: dlink.co.in
Dax’s DX-915ABO	The Dax DX-915ABO is an 802.11b/g wireless access point for indoor use. This device supports wireless networking speeds of up to 54 Mbps (802.11g) or 11Mbps (802.11b). The device can be configured to operate in four modes. It supports wireless security features such as WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, and WPA2-PSK.	Rs 5,830	Contact: Surendar K Telephone: 44 2432 3558/3557/ 1-800-4255-Dax(329) E-mail: help@daxnetworks.com Website: daxnetworks.com
Nortel’s Business Access Point 120	Nortel Business Access Point 120 are independent access points managed by the Nortel Business Element Manager, the common management framework for all of the company’s SMB products. Integration of multiple SSID and 802.11 a/b/g/SUPER AG support; IEEE802.1x/EAP based authentication (WPA/WPA2) using WEP, TKIP and AES encryption types are all supported. It is capable of mapping multiple SSIDs to multiple VLANs, enabling traffic segregation for enhanced security. It supports IEEE 802.11e EDCA/WMM interim QoS for multimedia, enabling traffic prioritization over the air with IEEE 802.11e compliant PDAs, Laptops, and NIC devices. It supports VLAN mapping with routers in the network that support VLAN mappings to subnets, enabling a fully managed QoS solution.	Rs 20,000 onwards	Contact: Shubhra Chadda Telephone: 80 66278202 E-mail: shubhra@nortel.com Website: nortel.com

Others
Product	Features	Price (in Rs)	Contact details
Belden’s Wireless Switch and Access Point	Belden BWS-8008/BWS-8024 Switches and the BWAP-200 access points that they control make possible Belden’s Channel Blanket Technology, a technology that delivers mobility with no security concerns, no roaming latency and no co-channel interference. Its other features include IEEE 802.11a / IEEE 802.11b / IEEE 802.11g / IEEE 802.11i WLAN; IEEE 802.3x, full/half duplex / IEEE 802.1q, VLAN tagging Ethernet; channels up to two simultaneous WLAN channels, capacity configurable data rate for each channel (up to 54 Mbps), triple the aggregate bandwidth of a/b/g channel, data rates of up to 162 Mbps on a standard channel and roaming Intra-switch - 0 mSec, Inter-switch < 50 mSec.	Wireless Switch: Rs 1,12,000 Wireless Access Point: Rs 50,000	Contact: Rajesh Shenoy Telephone: 9844246369 E-mail: Rajesh.Shenoy@belden.com Website: belden.com
SonicWall’s SSL VPN 2000	SonicWall SSL VPN 2000 provides integration behind virtually any firewall, and facilitates concurrent user tunnels. It gives clientless wired and wireless connectivity, and NetExtender technology. The product ensures granular policy configuration controls. This VPN provides personalised portal and layered security in a SonicWall environment.	Rs 1,71,000 plus taxes as applicable	Contact: Shubha Prasanna Telephone: 80-22275308 Extn: 304/305 Email: sprasanna@sonicwall.com Website: sonicwall.com
Riverbed Technology’s Optimization System RiOS 3.0	Riverbed Optimisation System (RiOS 3.0) is the software platform that enhances its line of Steelhead appliances. Running RiOS, organizations can simplify, accelerate and consolidate its IT infrastructure. It provides increased performance and scalability, as well as broadening the types of traffic that Steelhead appliances can optimise. The Steelhead appliance’s optimizations give companies the facility of sharing data and collaborate between distributed offices. Any Steelhead model can be clustered .With PFS enabled, 2,200 and 3,000 optimised TCP connections for models 3020 and 3520, respectively.	Rs 2,00,000 onwards	Contact: Vivek Singh Telephone: 80 - 22267272 E-mail: vsingh@riverbed.com Website: riverbed.com
Nortel’s Business Communications Manager	Nortel’s Business Communications Manager delivers PBX functionality, along with no-compromise voice mail and auto attendant features. BCM is available in three versions: BCM50, BCM200, and BCM400. BCM provides IP Telephony, Integrated Internet Access, simplified network infrastructure. It provides call centre applications such as basic (BCM50) and advanced (BCM200/400) It even provides wireless solutions (Choice of WLAN or Digital - BCM200/400), integrated data capabilities, including VPN. BCM provides interactive voice response (IVR) - BCM200/400 and keycode-enabled applications.	Basic version Rs 50,000 onwards	Contact: Shubhra Chadda Telephone: 80 66278202 E-mail: shubhra@nortel.com Website: nortel.com