ODS Announces New Full-Duplex Ethernet Switch/Repeater

New ODS Optic LongReach Ethernet Switch provides Full-Duplex Ethernet over
Single-Mode Fiber for Distances of over Sixty Kilometers

Richardson, Texas--June 5, 1995--Optical Data Systems, Inc. (ODS),
(NASDAQ-NMS:ODSI) the leading provider of intelligent switching hubs,
today introduced the new ODS Optic LongReach Ethernet switch that provides
full-duplex Ethernet over single-mode fiber for distances of up to 60
Kilometers. The switch provides six 10BaseFL ports that each support both
full- and half-duplex Ethernet connections and slides into all existing
Infinity hub chassis.

The Optic LongReach switches were integrated into Optical Data System's
product line to satisfy requirements at many large installations such as
Ft. Bragg and Ft. Hood. These US Army bases connect peripheral buildings
to an Area Distribution Node (ADN) using single-mode fiber. The ADN's are
then connected to a private Dial Central Office (DCO) via data ATM and
side-band Ethernet. This design poses two challenges. First, the network
needs a way to avoid Ethernet propagation delay that occurs from the
perimeter buildings to the DCO. Second, the network needed a way to
provide a secure network management path. The ODS Optic LongReach solves
these problems.

The Optic LongReach switch made it possible to overcome the distance
problem with the Ethernet propagation delay. Up to five perimeter
buildings can be connected using five 10BaseFL ports on this switch.
Unlike solutions that deploy multi-mode fiber, this design uses
single-mode fiber providing an easy future migration to higher bandwidth
distance ATM. It also keeps the management data path separated from
regular data paths guaranteeing security and maximizing network
performance.

Hardware

The Optic LongReach switch has six 10BaseFL ports that support either full-
or half-duplex connections and takes up two slots in the ODS 1095S
Infinity intelligent hub. It supports an RS-232 port that can be used for
Telnet network management or BootP/TFTP software. The switch is based on
store-and-forward technology and supports automatic self-learning address
tables and port mirroring. Up to 8,000 addresses will eventually be
supported, however, current drivers only support 4,096 address shared by
all six ports. The learn/filter/forward rate is approximately 500,000
packets-per-second. Network managers can use flash memory for software
upgrades and can use Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) to store a copy of the
switch's configuration.

Software

The switch can be managed with any SNMP-based management platform such as
the ODS Infinity LanVision hub tool. It supports the Spanning Tree 801.2d
algorithm. Custom VLAN capabilities are supported and selective Smart Flow
Control guarantees that no Ethernet packets will be dropped.

Availability and Pricing

The Optic LongReach will begin shipping in volume quantities in June.
Pricing will start at $15,600.

Optical Data Systems, Inc. (ODS) ODS sells a full range of intelligent
switching hubs; high-speed multi-protocol routers, bridges, switches and
sophisticated network management modules to large corporations that build
very large and advanced enterprise-wide information internetworks
including LANs, MANs and WANs. Its mainstay product, the ODS Infinity
intelligent switching hub, is the largest and only hub on the market that
supports all four of the industry standards--Ethernet, Token Ring, Fiber
Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).
The Infinity hub provides superior local and remote SNMP-based management
that supports all groups of RMON for both Ethernet, Token Ring and FDDI
networks. ODS can be reached at (214) 234-6400.

Optical Data Systems Inc
1101 E. Arapaho Rd
Richardson, TX 75081
214-301-3811,  fax 214-301-3893

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