Allied Telesis AT-9000/28 Layer 2 Gigabit Switches Go Even Greener

Chiasso, Switzerland. 2 July 2010 – Allied Telesis has launched a firmware upgrade for its range of 9000 series eco-friendly Gigabit Layer 2 switches, yielding on average 6% lower power consumption. The AT-S100 v2.0 firmware is an easy to install, field upgrade to all the existing 9000 series of eco-friendly switches, which were first released in November 2008.

With the upgrade, Allied Telesis has achieved even higher power efficiency with the AT-9000/28 28 port switch, which even after a year on the market, continues to maintain the lowest power footprint in its class. This has resulted in the maximum power consumption being reduced by 7.5% to 29.5W and the typical power consumption being reduced by 6.1% to 27.7W.

Melvyn Wray, Senior VP of Product Marketing EMEA at Allied Telesis, commented, “The power efficiency we have now accomplished while enhancing the AT-9000/28 switch features, meets the growing demand for more environmentally friendly, reliable IT networking solutions. A switch running the AT-S100 v2.0 firmware produces less heat, further reducing the need for air conditioning, which significantly lowers utility bills. Importantly, it helps businesses reduce carbon footprints – a step towards achieving the reductions outlined in the Kyoto agreement.”

The AT-S100 v2.0 firmware significantly improves security by adding IEEE 802.1x support, allowing the new switch to be installed in networks where IT managers employ user authentication, where higher security is required and where software such as Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) or Symantec Network Access Control (SNAC) is deployed. This is particularly effective in ensuring that stored personal or financial data is fully protected to comply with Data Protection Acts and SOX legislation. The AT-S100 v2.0 delivers improved Access Control Lists (ACLs) that allow the network manager to define lists of approved, or denied devices that can connect to the network. It also incorporates SSLv3 and SSHv3 enhanced security on the management port for the web GUI interface and a Telnet interface.

With the migration of phone systems from analog and digital systems to VoIP (Voice over IP), network infrastructure carrying voice traffic needs support features and functions to ensure both ease of installation and a better user experience. The AT-S100 v2.0 features LLDP-MED (Link Layer Discovery Protocol – Media Endpoint Discovery) and voice VLANs to ensure Quality of Service. LLDP-MED is a protocol that allows the switch to be alerted when a VoIP phone is connected to a switch port and supports voice VLAN, which simplifies network setup. With LLDP-MED, the switch automatically detects when a VoIP phone is connected and voice VLAN prioritizes voice traffic.

The enhanced switch includes an Sflow application sampling the dataflow from all of the ports, and reports this back to an external Sflow collector application to improve network diagnostics. This is extremely useful when designing complex networks and means high priority voice traffic can be delivered successfully even if links are over-subscribed.

The AT-S100 v2.0 is available from June 2010.