Avaya Powers Up Campus Switching

Avaya is expanding its networking portfolio this week with the new ERS 4800 switch for the campus edge.

With the 4800, Avaya is adding ports that will support both Gigabit as well as 10 Gigabit Ethernet with new SFP+ ports. Additionally, the new switch handles Power over Ethernet (PoE) Plus, providing up to 25.5 Watts of power. In contrast, first generation PoE ports only delivered 15 Watts.

Jean Turgeon, global general manager of Data Solutions at Avaya explained to InternetNews.com that the ERS 4800 is a complement to the existing ERS 4500. In his view, there are still many devices that don't need the added power that PoE plus provides. Additionally he noted that there are still customers that don't have a need for the 10 Gigabit Ethernet support that the ERS 4800 provides.

"There are some customers that don't want to pay a premium to have both 1 Gig and 10 Gig on the same box," Turgeon said. "We're maintaining both technologies."

Going beyond just power and bandwidth, the ERS 4800 also provides some new advanced capabilities to support wireless networks as well with wireless LAN forwarding.

"The reason why we're integrating wireless LAN forwarding is to prevent all the traffic from being backhauled to the controller, which is an inefficient use of the network," Turgeon said.

Turgeon noted that Avaya worked with silicon vendor Broadcom to provide Avaya's wireless LAN forwarding capabilities in an ASIC.

"So now an ERS 4800 will be able to forward on behalf of the wireless controller and participate in the wireless LAN domain, as opposed to only participating in the wired domain," Turgeon said.

According to Turgeon, the customer benefits include lower latency and a reduced number of tunnels across the network which will provide more seamless roaming for voice and video.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.