Monday, June 30, 2003

Marconi Demonstrates 10 Gbps Packet Encryption on its BXR-48000

Marconi has demonstrated the encryption of IP and ATM data at 10 Gbps rates for safeguarding the mission-critical, real-time applications and services required for secure government communications across the world. The demonstration used Marconi's BXR-48000 multiservice switch router, its 10 Gbps ATM interface card, and the 10 Gbps General Dynamics UltraFastlane KG-75A encryptor. Marconi supported encryption of 10 Gbps IP traffic over ATM, 10 Gbps of pure ATM traffic, and the simultaneous encrypted transport of 5 Gbps of IP and 5 Gbps of ATM. Marconi said that at present only ATM will support the encryption of IP packet and TDM traffic at 10 Gbps rates, while IP traffic over Ethernet is limited to encryption rates of 100 Mbps. The company noted that the demands on a global communications grid require secure, multi-gigabit streams of data with low latency and QoS. Examples include secure, high-speed transport of encrypted surveillance data, real-time control and harvest of data from networked military and intelligence assets such as the Global Hawk and Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), transport of high-definition video steams, distributed supercomputing, and the integration of large storage files with real-time, desktop video telephony, including multi-person and multi-site conferencing for collaborative decision-making.
http://www.marconi.com

  • In May 2003, Marconi announced support for the Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) for Simple Network Management Protocol, version 3, as a means to encrypt and secure the messages that manage its multiservice switch-routers. SNMP is a commonly used protocol for managing devices in a network. SNMPv3 improves security over previous versions by helping to ensure that each management message comes from an authenticated, verifiable source and has not been altered by unauthorized users. Marconi's 3DES for SNMPv3 is enabled with Marconi's management software and interoperates with the management software provided by other vendors. The combination of 3DES and SNMPv3 aims to ensure that unauthorized users cannot disrupt critical communications between network devices in commercial or government networks.


  • In January 2003, Marconi confirmed that the U.S. Department of Defense had become the first customer for its new 10 Gbps (OC-192c/STM-64) ATM port card, which interfaces to its flagship BXR-48000 multiservice switch- router. The Department of Defense will use the 10 Gbps ATM interface for classified applications in multiservice, broadband network expansion projects.