Dune Networks, a leader in switching fabric and traffic management solutions, announced today the availability of two new devices within the SAND™ (Scalable Architecture of Networking Devices) chipset. These devices, named FAP20V and FAP10V, provide 20 Gbps and 10 Gbps ingress/egress comprehensive traffic management functionality. The devices feature one (FAP10V) or two (FAP20V) SPI4.2 interfaces and a switch fabric interface. The FAP’s unique ability to interconnect and communicate via the fabric interface allows any system of any size to provide end-to-end rate and weight guarantees for packet flows.

Distinctive configurations provide different types of applications: The FAP devices may be configured as standard stand-alone ingress or egress traffic management devices and as such, they solve line-card local traffic management requirements. In this mode, a FAP10/20V device provides comprehensive local line-card traffic management services, such as: deep buffering, congestion avoidance via WRED and drop-from-front, finegrained weight and rate-based flow shaping toward the egress port and multicast replication per and within port.

A FAP10/20V device as a stand-alone device can further implement a 20-Gbps, sharedmemory, flow-aware switch, which switches traffic among its active SPI4.2 channels. This configuration may be used for Metro edge switch/router application.

The FAP devices may interconnect directly in a mesh (fabric-less) configuration or via the SAND-switching device (FE200) for higher capacity. This flexible interconnect configuration options allows the ystem vendor to design a full product line using the same chipset, sharing the same line and fabric cards. For example, for low-capacity platforms, the fabric-less (mesh) FAP configurations may be used, while higher-capacity platforms may use the same line cards connected via fabric cards. The fabric interface is further used to enable different redundancy schemes, such as N+K, N-K, and 1:1 active redundancy.

"In 2002, Dune Networks introduced the most scalable architecture to the fabric market," said Jag Bolaria, Senior Analyst with the Linley Group. "Delivering on the architecture, this latest product offers traffic management with rate and weight guarantees across a full system. Dune introduces the only traffic manager that operates over a fabric that can provide these capabilities. Ingress-to-egress system-level rate guarantees are fundamental to metro services offered by carriers."

A unique property of the FAP10/20V devices is their ability to communicate among themselves via the fabric interface and construct a distributed shared memory switch. Such an arrangement enables end-to-end rate guarantees of packet flows across a complete system and not just locally within a line card. This scheme enables the system to provide specific Committed Information Rate (CIR) and Peak Information Rate (PIR/EIR) for a packet flow from an ingress port (e.g. access port) to an egress port (e.g. uplink port).

Consuming less than 12W, the FAP10V and FAP20V devices from Dune Networks are the latest additions to the FAP family of traffic managers within the SAND chipset. They add to the FE200, the SAND switching device and the first FAP device, introduced as Marvell's Prestera FX930 (FAP10M). The Dune SAND traffic manager and switch fabric architecture is the first solution that allows system vendors and network service providers to build a platform that could dynamically scale and enhance port rates, port counts, and service schemes. This enables system vendors, for the first time, to build a full product line using the same chip-set, guaranteeing a life cycle of 7-10 years.

"The merchant switch fabric market is experiencing rapid growth, approaching $500 million in 2007 said John G. Metz, of Metz International, a market research firm based in Harvard, MA. "Dune Networks' innovative approach will be a driver to fuel growth in this sector. Their technology allows maximum scalability and design flexibility that offers the promise to significantly extend life cycles for data-centric systems so that they are more comparable to telecom systems. Dune is helping both service providers and vendors to maximize their profits."

"We are encouraged by the wide acceptance and success of the FAP10/20V devices and the SAND chipset in general," said Eyal Dagan, chief-executive officer of Dune Networks. "Based on our experience in different geographical regions, we have learned that our switch fabric and traffic-manager solutions enable system vendors to build complete product lines with advanced services and high ROI."

About Dune Networks

Dune Networks (www.dunenetworks.com) is a leading developer of intelligent switching fabrics and traffic management devices for Internet and storage networks. Founded in October 2000 by a team with extensive networking system level experience, as well as in-depth expertise in communication theory and silicon design, Dune Networks is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has an R&D center in Yakum Industrial Park, Israel. The company successfully completed a $24M first round of funding in 2002.