Foundry Networks announced immediate availability of full Layer 3 support for its FastIron Edge X-series family, the industry's first small form factor 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) edge switch family. Introduced in March 2004, the FastIron Edge X-series family has already been deployed at numerous large enterprise and Service Provider locations around the world, and with today's Layer 3 upgrade enhancements, the X-series switches deliver a compelling value proposition to organizations looking to future-proof their network infrastructure by leveraging 10-GbE. "Multimedia converged business applications are driving the exponentially growing demand for bandwidth and the adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet. New network applications such as VoIP, the explosion of cluster/grid computing, and the growth of storage area networks and Metro Area Networks are combining with rapidly decreasing prices to make 10-GbE an essential element for future proofing high-performance enterprise and Service Provider networks," said Zeus Kerravala, vice president of research for the Yankee Group The full Layer 3 upgrade package is available now and includes support for Internet routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol version 1 and 2 (RIP v1/v2) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), multicast routing protocols such as Protocol Independent Multicast-Sparse Mode, Protocol Independent Multicast-Dense Mode, and Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol. An upcoming software release will also include support for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The FastIron Edge X-series switches are powered by high performance packet processors that can dynamically populate routing information in memory as routing updates arrive. Large Internet Protocol routing tables are maintained and managed in hardware to deliver wire-speed packet processing and dynamic update of the complete IP routing table, enabling immediate responsiveness to the ever-changing IP route updates coming from the Internet. Included in the release is an extensive list of security capabilities to secure access to any enterprise and Service Provider network. Secured network access includes 802.1X authentication, dynamic assignment of VLAN, Access Control Lists, and MAC Filter Group with 802.1X authentication. These features are designed to give network managers complete control of user access, resource allocation, policy enforcement and continuous traffic monitoring of their mission-critical network resources. Consistent with all other Foundry Layer 2/3 products, the X-series switches support sFlow (RFC 3176) to deliver complete visibility of network traffic. sFlow is an IETF specification for network-wide monitoring of network flow traffic statistics and is widely used by network managers to deliver important applications including intrusion detection, denial-of-service attack detection, service billing, network engineering, fault-monitoring, trouble-shooting and network surveillance. "As an optical wholesale carrier, we need a high-performance and reliable Layer 2/3 switch to deliver Ethernet leased line services to our customers," said Niels Zibrandtsen, CEO of Global Connect, a leading Scandinavian service provider. "The FES X-series 10-GbE edge switch meets our needs perfectly by delivering built-in Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, redundant hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies, customer traffic separation and rate limiting and optional 10-GbE ports for our future needs." With delivery of a full Layer 3 switching software upgrade for the FES X-series 10-GbE edge switch product line, Foundry extends its leadership in the Layer 3 switching market. According to the Dell'Oro Group, a leading industry research firm, Foundry has been the leading Layer 3 switching vendor in the market for the last three years. Foundry's Layer 3 switching solutions have been installed in nearly 7,000 organizations including the University of Miami, USC's Information Sciences Institute, Cardiff University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the Clark County, Nevada School District, Cerner Corporation, AOL, the BBC Corporation, U.S. Army, Ottawa Hydro Telecom and NTT Communications. "As a leading research institute at a top-rated university, we need high performance and feature-rich Layer 3 switching solutions at an affordable price. We selected Foundry's X-series 10-GbE edge switches because they exceeded all of our expectations," said Richard Nelson, director of Computing at USC's Information Sciences Institute. "The optional Layer 3 upgrade and 10-GbE uplinks allow us to flexibly deploy these features whenever we need them. Combine 10-GbE and BGP in the L3 package, and the FES X-series is ready for whatever the future may bring." "This announcement reaffirms the power of the FES X-series switches -- they are capable of operating in a 10/100/1000 standalone environment with Gigabit Ethernet uplinks or optionally operating with one or two 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. They have leading Layer 2 functionality for both enterprise and Metro Service Provider solutions. With this announcement, they now have full Layer 3 capabilities for both demanding enterprise environments and Internet Service Provider environments," said Bobby Johnson, president and CEO of Foundry Networks.