Having filled out the top-end of its range with the BPX family announced last year, StrataCom Inc of Campbell, California has turned its attention to the low-end market with a new access multiplexer said to provide Frame Relay and Frame Relay-to-Asynchronous Transfer Mode internetworking over trunks from 9.6Kbps to 512Kbps. Called the FastPAD, the new product is the latest member of the company’s FastPacket family of products, and is being billed as the first system to tie even small remote offices into a central Asynchronous Transfer Mode network: it uses a Frame Relay-compatible trunk (enabling connections to public Frame Relay services) and is also said to incorporate frame-to-cell interworking, enabling connection to Asynchronous Transfer Mode networks. In common with StrataCom’s IPX and BPX ranges, the product supports voice switching enabling users to dynamcially route speech or facsimile calls based on the digits dialled, and Stratacom says it offers users more flexibility than competing offerings through a wider range of topology options, and because it does not require a central voice tandem switch. It adds that the FastPAD can interoperate with the company’s IPX and BPX products enabling users to tie remote offices into existing StrataCom networks. Available immediately, a FastPAD system including base system, operating software, one trunk and six data channels is to cost under $5,000, while pricing for a typical voice and data node is quoted at $10,000. The product was produced as the result of an on-going development agreement between StrataCom and Advanced Compression Technology Inc, based in Simi Valley, California. According to StrataCom, Advanced Compression supplied the basic box (although it does not seem to correspond to anything in Advanced Compression’s range), while StrataCom was responsible for adding the extra functionality.
