Choosing The Right Router

Routers have long been a critical part of many networks. But today, routers are moving to the outer edges of the network of small and midsize businesses. Key features customers are looking for include the ability to support high-speed access technologies, support for converged voice and data, and added levels of security support over one network.

"These shifts are an opportunity for our partners to offer a new level of service to customers," says Joe Ammirato, director of product marketing at Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif. "Not only do customers get the ability to access the Internet but many ways to do that in a more secure or faster fashion."

Increasingly, business users are looking for ways to let many types of traffic traverse the network.

"Routing is no longer data-only," says Joanie Reuben, product marketing manager at Nortel Networks, Simi Valley, Calif. "Multiservice routing is the wave of the future as voice, video and legacy data are integrated on the LAN."

Along with those new capabilities, however, are questions about bandwidth and security.

"Customers who have always had a traditional data network are looking at the issues of convergence and voice-over-IP," says Cary O'Brien, director of product marketing at Williams Communications Solutions, a solution provider in Houston. "Their major concerns when they start converging voice-over-IP is what will happen with all these routers and whether they will have the bandwidth to accommodate the traffic."

Users at smaller companies also put simplicity of setup and maintenance on the top of their shopping lists. Such users can rarely afford a dedicated administrator, so they're looking for devices that offer seamless setup and hassle-free maintenance.

"As the technology becomes available and utilized by an increasing number of businesses, the need for a product that maintains the capabilities of the router but hides the complexity is increasingly important," says Nick Hallwood, director of small business solutions at 3Com, Marlborough, Mass.

Intelligent Routers

Router manufacturers including Nortel Networks (see "A Gem of a Solution," page 48) are producing a variety of products designed to meet the high-speed demands of those accessing the network over ADSL and cable modem lines. For example, in June, Motorola's Multiservice Networks Division announced the Motorola Instant Access model 2221, an intelligent ADSL router aimed at small-business users. The $859 router features Motorola's Activator,autosensing service management software that allows service providers to remotely manage up to 1 million users and provide a range of customer services including automating the installation and maintenance of the routers, managing service delivery levels, and monitoring network usage and bandwidth needs.

In May, 3Com announced the 3Com OfficeConnect 812 ADSL Router for LAN connections and high-speed Internet access over ADSL lines. The $599 router supports both G.lite and full-rate versions of ADSL, is designed to work with leading service providers that offer ADSL service and includes a Web-based installation wizard.

In April, Cisco announced a virtual private network module for its Cisco 1700 Series Access Routers, which support a number of encryption and data-authentication standards. The module fits into expansion slots in the Cisco 1720 and 1750 router chassis and encrypts data using DES and 3DES algorithms at speeds suitable for full-duplex T-1

and E-1 serial connections. The module performs encryption and other IPSec-related tasks in hardware for faster speeds. The module also supports a variety of other IPSec-related functions, including hashing, key exchange and storage of security associations.

Opportunity Awaits

Meanwhile, some switch products are incorporating router capabilities as well. And as new products that incorporate routing capabilities become available, solution providers have an opportunity to upgrade the networks of existing customers, says Bryce Clark, director of strategic planning for HP's ProCurve Networking Business, Roseville, Calif.

"Absolutely, there's an opportunity for [solution providers] to come in and help customers design out routers in the core of the network and replace them with Layer 3 high-speed switches," he says.

Other manufacturers, such as Nortel, are taking routing functionality and incorporating it into software solutions, as HP has with its Open IP Environment.

"Users are looking for an increase of performance and a decrease in price, and that's how the router market is going to evolve," says Kalai Kalaichelvan, general manager of the Open IP Environment at Nortel, Ottawa. "We've found that it is not the router that is important, but the routing. With our technology, we can pull the routing or IP functions out of the router, make it independent of the hardware and available in multiple platforms in the software."

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A Gem of a Solution

Harry Ritchie Jewelers is a typical example of a customer poised to realize substantial cost savings by using a new router. With 28 stores spread throughout California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, the Eugene, Ore.-based company needed a solution that would enable each location to access its point of sale (POS) and back-office software programs. It also needed a voice network for telephone calls between offices.

The jeweler turned to InfoGroup Northwest, a local solution provider, to connect its store branches with the main office in Eugene.

"We were faced with an organization with many small branches over a large geographic distribution," says David Trepp, vice president of technology at InfoGroup Northwest, also in Eugene. "They needed to realize voice and data consolidation over the network to reduce the costs and complexity and make things work together."

The company eventually selected the Nortel Passport 4460 router to connect its 28 locations after running real-world tests and evaluating which router provided the best throughput.

"We are currently running voice to save money on long distance," says Chass Thuresson, network administrator at Harry Ritchie Jewelers. "We were having trouble justifying spending money on this type of network just for POS data, but we are saving thousands per month on long distance. It will pay itself off in a fairly short period of time. There is a rapidly growing awareness of consolidation of services,not only of the cost benefits of those types of services, but, indeed, the complexity reduction it provides for network [administration] and manageability."