Alcatel Debuts New Core and Edge Switches

December 13, 2002 -- Communications equipment maker Alcatel (Alcatel.com) announced this week that it has released new additions to its OmniSwitch family of switching products for enterprise data and voice applications, including the Alcatel OmniSwitch 8000 series for the enterprise core and the Alcatel OmniSwitch 6000 series for the enterprise edge.

The OmniSwitch 6000 and 8000 series appliances, says the company, join the recently released Alcatel OmniSwitch 7000 series to provide consistent carrier-class features from the core to the edge of the enterprise network. The switches, says Alcatel, extend a set of features designed to support non-stop network operation.

The 8000 series is Alcatel's premier core switch, offering a true non-blocking 10 gigabit architecture, and supporting up to 384 ports of gigabit Ethernet in less than 40 inches of rack space. And the 6000 series, says Alcatel, marks a new concept of virtual chassis switch, allowing 6000s to behave like an advanced chassis, eliminating single points of failure at the network edge.

"Alcatels OmniSwitch family enables non-stop network operation and simplifies network administration processes across the enterprise," says Eric Penisson, Alcatel vice president of Network Infrastructure Product Marketing. "Alcatel is able to offer this new level of network predictability through a unified architecture that is designed to deliver the ideal multi-service infrastructure for mission-critical voice and data applications."