Data Connection releases portable PNNI software product following successful participation in the UNH ATM PNNI interoperability test
London, UK: April 25, 1997.. Data Connection today announced that following the successful Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Private Network-Network Interface (PNNI) interoperability testing carried out at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), it is now releasing DC-PNNI, its portable software ATM PNNI product.
The PNNI protocol allows ATM devices to monitor the topology of an ATM Network, and dynamically calculate the route that an ATM call should take through the network for a requested quality of service. PNNI decreases the initial configuration effort required to set-up an ATM network, and allows the network to continue functioning efficiently as ATM switches, end users and connections start and stop.
Data Connection's DC-PNNI V1.0 product implements the single-peer group subset of the PNNI specification, and is fully integrated with Data Connection's other portable ATM software, including its Signalling, Call Control, ILMI and MIB management software.
"We have been testing DC-PNNI in our own and our customers development labs for many months, to ensure that the product we are releasing today is fully functional and handles every conceivable problem in the network or in the local switch, such as failure to allocate memory" said John Palombo, Director of Data Connection's ATM Business Unit. "Our customers tell us that they have been extremely pleased with the speed at which they were able to port the code to their systems, with the performance and robustness of the DC-PNNI product, and with the high level of support provided by Data Connection's engineers."
The UNH interoperability testing event focused on testing products implementing the ATM Forum PNNI and UNI 4.0 specifications, and included implementations from IBM, Cisco, Fore, Madge, Cascade, 3Com, CrossComm and Olicom. Amongst the list of ATM technology suppliers attending the UNH testing, Data Connection is unique in being the only portable software vendor.
"We view successful validation at this sort of interoperability event as a fundamental requirement for all our portable products" said Neil Collins, PNNI Development Manager at Data Connection. "The ATM Forum's PNNI specification is very detailed and complete but it is only through extensive multi-vendor testing that you can minimize interoperability problems at user sites and make large scale ATM networks a reality."
DC-PNNI V1.0 features a high-performance route calculation engine, which implements techniques such as route caching and partial routing tree updates to minimize the time required to calculate a route. The route calculation engine can also be distributed in a multi-processor system, so that each processor can make a local routing decision, rather than having to go through one single, centralized component. DC-PNNI V1.0 supports the PNNI MIB, and all of the mandatory features of the PNNI specification.
DC-PNNI V1.0 is available immediately. Later this year, Data Connection will be releasing DC-PNNI V2.0, which implements the full PNNI specification, including peer group leader, and support for multi-level PNNI peer groups.
DC-PNNI is written in C and runs within the N-BASE, the operating environment used by all Data Connection's portable ATM and SNA products. In common with Data Connection's other N-BASE products, DC-PNNI is architected to run efficiently and unchanged in environments ranging from single processor-systems running high-performance single-threaded operating systems, to sophisticated multi-processor and fault-tolerant environments.
Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of ATM, Data Conferencing, Messaging, Directory and SNA portable software products, with customers including Hewlett-Packard, IBM Corp., Lotus, Microsoft, and large end-users such as banks, governments and airlines. Data Connection is headquartered in London UK, with US offices in Virginia. It was founded in 1981 and is privately held. During each of the past 15 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue. Last year, sales were approximately $21M, of which over 80% were in the US.
For further information contact
John Palombo, Director, ATM Business Unit :
or Tony Downes, PR Director :
or
Phone : + 44 20 8366 1177
Fax : + 44 20 8363 4478
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