Re: (ASCEND) PM4 or TNT ...is there a thread?

[Martin Saunders <martins@easynet.net>]

On Sun, Dec 06, 1998 at 11:16:47PM -0600, iml@interconnect.net wrote:
> Seems to be a popular questions...we currently run many Ascend MAX
> 40xxs and couple Max 6000s.
> 
> It is time for a high density unit and I'm wondering the opinions of
> everyone else on this.  I'm sure this has been discussed.
> 
> Which gives the best performance/stability?
> 
> The Max TNT
> or
> The Livingston PM4
> 
> We plan on keeping some 4000s in production and the 6000, however, the
> bulk of dialup analog and isdn will be off loaded to the high density
> unit.
> 
> You can reply email if you wish not to use the list.

As allways, there are good and bad points to each. The PM4 is running ComOS,
which although isn't as feature-full as TNT-OS (or whatever it is called ;-),
it actually works.

The build quality on the PM4's isn't up to much. The cards are fun to hot swap
as the cards either side tend to get in the way. The air flow on the PM4 is
good though, as the air is sucked in from the front bottom and extracted from
the top at the back. You can also have redundant controller cards, and
the port density is currently 810 ports (E1 spec) moving up to 2400 ports
by q2 next year.

Apperently SS7/C7 support will be available for both these boxes some time
next year, but after speaking with various people from Lucent and Ascend
at the ClubNet/Ascend World conferences, their focus seems to be dodgy at
best. SS7 (C7) are the 'next big thing' apperently, but then quite what
they are going to do with it with real world machines no-one seems to know.
Nevermind..

I'm looking hard at the PM4's, but one thing that worries me is that there
is no large installation of the unit's in Europe ATM. If I'm going to beta
these things, I want them for next to nothing, and I doubt Lucent will be
keen on that.

Anyway, these are my thoughts.

Regards

Martin

-- 
+-----------------
Martin Saunders	  E A S Y N E T  G R O U P  P L C.
Network Engineer
martins@easynet.net    		(+44) 171 681 4444
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