Efficient Networks this week is expected to announce a gateway designed to serve Symmetrical High-Density DSL to small and midsize businesses, enterprise branch offices and enterprise teleworkers.

Called the 5950 SHDSL Business Gateway, the device complies with the International Telecommunications Union G.991.2 recommendation. SHDSL can run up to 20,000 feet from a central office at speeds ranging from 384K bit/sec to 2.3M bit/sec over a single copper pair.

And unlike the symmetric DSL (SDSL) services offered by DSL wholesalers and their ISPs, SHDSL is fully compatible with asymmetric DSL (ADSL).

The 5950, which will be generally available by the end of June, is capable of supporting a network of between 200 and 250 users, says Dano Ybarra, vice president of business management in Efficient's business solutions division. Previous Efficient gateways had relied on Motorola's Power PC 850 chip, but the 5950 uses the more powerful 855T chip.

Ybarra says the box can also support wire-speed VPN services by off-loading security processing to a Motorola MPC180 encryption chip. Other features of the 5950 include SNMP-based management software, letting users manage the gateway through SNMP or Telnet, and dial backup.

The gateway also includes support for the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, letting users maintain VPN sessions even if the gateway fails over to a back-up line.

Service providers likely won't begin offering SHDSL in the U.S. until later this year, says Mike Lowe, an analyst with research firm Pioneer Consulting. But once they do, Lowe believes SHDSL will become the standard business DSL service.

"There are a lot of people embracing this technology," he says.

Ybarra says incumbent providers and competitive providers have expressed interest in SHDSL and the 5950. Providers should be able to deploy SHDSL in their existing DSL Access Multiplexers by simply switching line cards, Ybarra says.

Ybarra says European providers should begin deploying the technology early in the second half of this year, and Asian providers should follow suit shortly after.

Efficient is one of the first DSL vendors to offer an SHDSL gateway for the customer premises. In other DSL markets -- ADSL, SDSL and DSL over ISDN -- it competes against numerous customer premises equipment providers, including Alcatel, Cayman and Westell.

Initially Ybarra says the 5950 will be distributed by Efficient's service provider customers, but eventually, because SHDSL is a ratified standard, business customers should be able to purchase SHDSL gateways through retail channels.

The list price of the 5950 is $600.

» posted by ITworld staff

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