Network equipment manufacturer Adtran reportedly has introduced the NetVanta family of switches, targeting the Small and Medium Business market.

 

Company officials said that the NetVanta 1000 series of switches would offer enterprise class features at an SMB price point. Some of the features supported by the new models are Gigabit Power over Ethernet, power conservation and wireless controller capability. Adtran will be offering a limited lifetime warranty with these switches.

 

The new models introduced are the NetVanta 1534, 1238 and 1234 switches, with PoE support available as an optional feature on all the models. Power over Ethernet support enables PoE capable networking devices to be powered through the Ethernet cable, without requiring a connection to a power supply point located near the device. The NetVanta switches are compliant with IEEE (News - Alert) 802.3af PoE standard devices as well as with pre-standard legacy PoE implementations.

 

The NetVanta 1534 is a 26 port layer-2 Gigabit switch, with support for CompactFlash and expandable RAM. The NetVanta 1238 offers high port density with 48 ports, four of these being Gigabit uplink ports. The NetVanta 1234 is a layer-2 24 port switch with four Gigabit uplink ports.

 

All models feature an inbuilt wireless controller and support for Link Layer Discovery Protocol-Media Endpoint Discovery, which helps to enable E 911 and other services for VoIP devices. The switches also feature cable diagnostics, which help to identify Ethernet cable faults and other network problems.

 

The switches run on the proprietary Adtran Operating System. Some of the features supported by the OS are Virtual LANs, Quality of Service, Link Aggregation, TCL scripting and remote configuration capability. Switch configuration can be performed through a Web browser or by using the Command Line Interface provided.

 

The devices should be available by the end of this month, Adran says.

 

 “In an Internet economy, the competition is not just the business down the street or across town, but anyone selling similar products or services online,” says Naresh Singh, a principal analyst at Gartner (News - Alert). “As a result, SMBs are being driven to become more enterprise-like in their network architectures, while remaining on an SMB budget.”