ADTRAN is expanding into the router market, with plans to announce later this month two low-cost access routers for branch office applications.
The company is expanding into the router market with its NetVanta 3000 series of product because ADTRAN customers, in a move to reduce their capital expenditures, have asked for alternative, lower cost router solutions from established vendors, explain Tim Saunders, vice president of product management for ADTRAN and Rob Snyder, marketing manager for ADTRAN’s enterprise networking division.
The NetVanta 3000 series delivers a low-cost alternative to the venerable Cisco Systems Inc. 1700 router. Snyder says that while the 1700 lists for $1195, ADTRAN’s 3200 lists for just $695.
There are currently two products in the NetVanta 300 series.
The 3200 is standalone unit that comes in a plastic housing and includes LEDs on the front that provide information about WAN and LAN circuit status. It has one modular slot and a LAN 10/100 Ethernet port. The 3205 is the exact same device in terms of features and functionality, but comes in a metal enclosure and is one rack unit high.
The single slot in both devices accepts a network interface module supporting 56kpbs, T1/fractional T1, T1/fractional 1 with a port to interface with a PBX, a serial module, S.HDSL or E1. ADTRAN also offers a dial backup module, which plugs on to network interface module and then slides into the chassis, to offer analog modem or ISDN BRI. Both devices support frame relay, PPP, and static and RIP 1 and 2. The ADTRAN routers are interoperable with other vendors’ larger routers.
Snyder says that unlike the Cisco 1700, ADTRAN’s new routers offer stateful inspection firewall. While Cisco offers VPN functionality in its 1700 and ADTRAN’s NetVanta 3000 series doesn’t, customers can couple ADTRAN’s routers with its 2000 VPN firewall series products, which start at $495, to offer VPN functionality, he adds. The ADTRAN products will include a five-year standard warranty, which Snyder says trumps the competition. The company also offers free 24x7 phone support and the option of added installation and maintenance support for an additional fee on the routers.
The new routers are targeted at three applications:
· for voice transport to a local PBX via a frame relay wide area connection;
· for ISDN BRI dial back up to branch offices if the frame relay link to the corporate site becomes unavailable;
· and for secure Internet access from 56kpbs to T1.
While trying to take router business from Cisco seems a tough sell, Saunders says ADTRAN always enters markets with the goal of being the market leader. To make that happen, ADTRAN says it is trying to make it as easy as possible for carriers and enterprises to make the leap. Snyder explains that the new routers offer a command line interface for configuration that “mimics the defacto standard used by Cisco routers,” says Snyder. That way people that are familiar with the Cisco interface don’t need new training, notes Saunders. At www.dare2compare.adtran.com visitors can see a 3D model of the routers and modules, view command line interface examples and can even “drive a router” using the command line interfaces, says Snyder.
Saunders and Snyder add that ADTRAN is not really a newcomer to the router space. The company has an installed base of 75,000 products with router functionality. ADTRAN’s integrated access devices make up the single biggest product category in that example.
And because ADTRAN has long been selling CSU/DSUs that site in front of routers, the company already has the distribution channels in place to sell its new routers, says Snyder. ADTRAN made the routers available to its value-added resellers, which distribute its products to enterprise customers, in June/July. The company, which sells direct to service providers, is in router trials with carriers.
