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TeamF1 Announces Merlink |
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| for Link Aggregation,
Load-Balancing and Fault Tolerance |
| Merlink
Provides Standards-based Framework for Higher Availability
and Effective Bandwidth in Connected Embedded Systems |
Fremont,
California, March 31, 2003 – TeamF1, Inc.
the high-performance embedded networking and security
software company, today announced
Merlink, a software link
aggregation framework to group links and switch ports for
higher bandwidth, load-balancing and fail-over capabilities.
This marks TeamF1’s initial launch into the switching
protocol market enabling wireless and Ethernet switch
manufacturers to easily integrate leading edge technology
components into their products.
Merlink can be used in managed and unmanaged Ethernet
switches, wireless access points, gateway devices and
systems that need high-availability. Merlink provides
redundancy to the network, making it resilient to failures,
and sharing traffic load across links. Additionally, link
aggregation provides a standards-based mechanism for LAN
switch ports and high-end server network interface cards to
be grouped together to achieve a linear increase in
bandwidth.
“Network bandwidth is increasingly becoming a critical
component in all kinds of connected embedded devices ranging
from switch fabrics to embedded media servers with a demand
for higher transfer speeds,” said Vinai Kolli, Vice
President of TeamF1.
“Increased bandwidth can be achieved by a complete upgrade
of the underlying physical layer or data-link layer
technology but this is not always a viable solution because
of costs and compatibility issues with legacy technologies.
Merlink provides a drop-in framework for our customers to
efficiently add link aggregation, load-balancing, and
fail-over capabilities to embedded applications, while
allowing them to focus their core competencies on developing
their product.“
About Merlink
Merlink enables multiple links to be aggregated together to
form a link aggregation group so that a MAC client can treat
the group as a single higher-speed link. This aggregated
link results in increased bandwidth and provides fault
tolerance capabilities. In the event of a link failure,
Merlink redistributes traffic from the failed links to the
remaining links in the group. Merlink also balances the load
across different links with support for customizable
load-balancing algorithms that can handle varying bandwidth.
Additionally, Merlink includes an implementation of the IEEE
LACP (802.3ad – Link Aggregation Control Protocol) standard
for automatically adding and removing links from an
aggregate. Merlink’s tiny footprint and configurable modules
have been specifically designed for use in an embedded
environment. It is immediately available and pre-integrated
on Wind River’s VxWorks® 5.xx operating system.
Merlink’s framework contains APIs to manually or
automatically add and remove existing links from aggregates,
as well as the capability to have an aggregate appear as a
virtual END driver to the higher network layers in VxWorks,
providing maximum transparency to the application. The
framework builds upon standard END drivers requiring no
special OS or networking source code and supports links of
different physical types and bandwidths. Additionally,
Merlink is a full software implementation with hooks for
hardware-based aggregation. This easily adds a standard
based software implementation of aggregation to any switch,
with the possibility of leveraging switching chip features
to control aggregation.
Merlink is the first technology available from TeamF1’s
Switchcraft family of switching protocol products. Follow-on
protocols will leverage TeamF1’s leadership in embedded
network security applied to the needs of the Ethernet and
wireless switch market. For more product details, please
refer to http://www.TeamF1.com/Merlink.htm.
Availability
Merlink is
available as a source license directly from TeamF1 with
immediate availability on Wind River System’s VxWorks 5.xx
and Tornado® for Managed Switches product. TeamF1‘s
professional services group is available for
application-specific customization of Merlink and general
embedded development expertise.
About TeamF1
TeamF1, Inc., privately
held corporation headquartered in Fremont, CA, is a leader
in high performance embedded networking and security
software. Founded in 1996, is a privately held
corporation headquartered in Fremont, CA. TeamF1’s products
enable secure management of telecom/datacom and industrial
equipment, and provide the infrastructure components needed
for switching and wireless products in various market
segments. For more information visit the company’s website
at
http://www.TeamF1.com or contact TeamF1 Public Relations
at 510-505-9931 or email
pr@TeamF1.com. |
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VxWorks, Tornado and WindRiver Systems are
registered trademarks of Wind River Systems. |
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