Closely-held RAD Data Communications of Mahwah, N.J., has introduced two new intelligent circuit converters, the RICi-E3 and RICi-T3, that connect Fast Ethernet LAN traffic over T3 or E3 circuits enabling the vast majority of SONET and SDH users to efficiently move that traffic without waiting to convert to next generation architectures.

The company said the new products enable service providers and ISPs to provide transparent Ethernet services without interfering with user traffic. And as evidence, RAD Data announced Color Broadband, a provider of data, voice, and wireless networking services in Southern California, as a customer testimonial for the RICi-T3 Ethernet-over-T3 converter.

"Although Fast Ethernet can connect directly to Next Generation SDH/SONET backbones, this isnt the case for the majority of the hundreds of thousands of existing SDH/SONET rings that are based on current technology," explains Ramon Horkany, Product Line Manager at RAD. "Furthermore, some local or regional carriers or ISPs dont own their own SDH/SONET infrastructure, or they have a network which doesnt reach a particular area, and need to lease lines from other carriers to provide Fast Ethernet services to the customer."

The RICi-E3 and RICi-T3 support unframed E3 and framed or unframed T3 circuits respectively, and an Ethernet user port. The 802.1p priority scheme enables users to define different levels of Quality of Service (QoS) according to the application requirements. The bridges can work in filter mode where they learn MAC addresses and filter local traffic, or in transparent mode where any received packet will be forwarded to the other interface. A VLAN tag stacking option enables transport of user traffic transparently, keeping all the user VLAN settings intact.

Color Broadband decided to deploy the RICi-T3 upon the recommendation of Pulse Inc., one of RAD Data's system integration resellers. The company had been using two general-purpose routers to transport Ethernet traffic over a SONET T3 (45 Mbps) link.

"Using those devices to terminate a single T3 was a bit ridiculous," said Tom Luckett, Color Broadbands director of network operations. "For our capacity requirements, it was overkill. We didnt need $12,000 worth of equipment at each end to perform this function. Plus, we werent interested in dealing with the devices physical size, power requirements, heat output, and ongoing maintenance costs."

With a network infrastructure that runs east from Santa Monica to Monterey Park and as far south as the city of Irvine, Color Broadband characterized RAD Data's solution as just what it was looking for -- small, low power consumption and low heat output at a fraction of the cost of the big routers it had been in place.