RACAL-DATACOM ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY'S FIRST INTEGRATED ISDN RESTORAL

Excalibur ISDN DBR offers faster recovery than analog restoral at the same
price. 

Oct 16, 1995 -- SUNRISE, FL. -- Racal-Datacom today became the first vendor
to offer the speed and cost efficiency of integrated ISDN dial backup for
leased-line networks. Instead of depending on slower analog restoral, now
network operators can gain much faster restoral with the Excalibur ISDN
DBR (Dial Backup Resource) for about the same amount of expense in
hardware and line charges.

In mission-critical applications such as cash register point-of-sale, funds
transfer and other time-sensitive transactions, network outages translate
into dollars lost. Every second of downtime means additional losses. ISDN
can provide full backup with a high quality digital line for the price of
an analog slower line. 

The ISDN DBR is available as a card for the Excalibur Dial Restoral System
(EDRS) central site system. 

ISDN DBR offers network operators four advantages: integrated dial restoral
of multiple remote locations can be handled at the central site, the
comfort of restoral capability without costly expenditures, the network is
made more efficient and greater bandwidth increases the network's
capabilities, functionality and value. 

The use of ISDN in this dial back-up option provides faster dial speed,
faster connect time, allows both dial-up and main circuit simultaneous
testing, improves security by blocking numbers that have not been
programmed as valid numbers, and operates at 64 Kbps. 

ISDN provides users with access to the latest and most effective way to
ensure network availability at the highest level of performance. 

In a 20-drop circuit, any number from 1 to 20 drops can be automatically
restored, depending on how many circuits go down. This restoral is
transparent to the running application. This means two things for users: 

1. Shared resources at the central site mean redundancy is less expensive.


2. The ISDN DBR transparently bridges to the data stream. This provides the
user with partial dial and leased-line alternatives where the application
doesn't sense the difference. 

With this addition, Racal continues as the front-runner in providing ISDN
restoral solutions for its complete line of access products of analog,
Switched 56 four-wire and ISDN Basic Rate options throughout the company's
portfolio of Digital 56 capabilities. 

Last year Racal-Datacom pioneered integrated ISDN Dial Backup for its
Excalibur DAP line, providing automatic ISDN backup for multirate CSU/DSU
dedicated services to protect a network against a dedicated line failure.


Racal-Datacom was the first vendor to introduce an integrated CSU/DSU
design utilizing basic rate ISDN. Although ISDN has been on the horizon
for several years, up to now hardware to utilize it for leased-line backup
has been very bulky and very expensive. The Racal-Datacom Excalibur DAP
offers its ISDN backup solution within a single box rather than the three
boxes previously needed for ISDN backup. The DAP design places a digital
service unit, terminal adapter function and integrated NTI network
termination in one box. 

ISDN TODAY

The only multinational standard for end-to-end digital communications, ISDN
offers the integration of data, voice and images over a single line. ISDN
provides higher bandwidth and faster call setup times than analog or
Switched 56 service and therefore is more efficient and economical than
those services. This makes ISDN attractive for mission-critical
applications demanding high-speed access. 

ISDN is attracting users today for three reasons: 

* It is typically less expensive than Switched 56 back-up bandwidth.
Switched 56 bandwidth tariffs range from $50 to $70 per month, in contrast
to using ISDN for less than $30 per month for the same bandwidth (where
available). 

* Analog customers, typically using V.32bis modems operating at 14.4 Kbps,
are required to buy bandwidth for individual back-up applications. But
with ISDN, the user gains full bandwidth for a simple monthly charge.
Circuit switched data (CSD), graphics and images travel over a single
circuit at higher speeds than are available with analog circuits. This
provides end-to-end digital communications, but the user only pays for the
actual bandwidth that is needed. 

* When a user wants full back-up but can't afford Switched 56 service, it
soon will be possible to gain an ISDN circuit for the price of a voice
line. (Tariffs vary, but the nationwide trend today is for ISDN tariffs to
decrease. The cost of ISDN compared to voice is expected to converge
soon.) 

Excalibur ISDN DBR is available now. Pricing starts at $2,600. 

Racal-Datacom also offers a complete series of ISDN terminal adapters
designed for specific areas of the world. Consequently, it is now possible
to use one vendor for ISDN networks operating anywhere in the Western
Hemisphere and Europe, as well as in South Africa and many parts of Asia
(such as Australia and Singapore). 

The Racal-Datacom provides managed network access products and services for
branch office networks, remote corporate users, telecommuters and
multimedia over fiber applications 

Racal-Datacom Internet Home Page address is http://www.racal.com 

Racal-Datacomm, 1601 N. Harrison Parkway, Sunrise, FL 33323-2899
Mailing Address: PO Box 40744, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33340-7044
305-846-1601;  (800) RACAL-55;  Fax: 305-846-3935
 
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