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Marvell Introduces SOHO IPv6 Enabled Switching Solutions

Marvell, a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband communications and storage solutions, announced the availability of unmanaged GbE Link Street and the IPv6 enabled managed Link Street devices. With these newly introduced devices, Marvell is adding to its SOHO portfolio enhanced QoS and IPv6 capabilities that enable its customers support emerging applications such as Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and Fiber to the Curb (FTTC).

The Link Street 88E6093/88E693F devices offer sophisticated QoS assignment based on IPv6 Traffic Class (TC) or IPv4 Type of Service (ToS). IPv6 TC based prioritization provides Network Managers the ability to control traffic for different applications for such as Voice over IP, Video distribution and 3G enabled wireless devices. In addition, IPv6 MLD snooping enables the identification of the IPv6 Multicast packets for wire speed switching. This feature enables the deployment and efficient management of next generation IPv6 based Multicast networks for emerging applications such as video distribution.

"With service providers pushing the envelope on wireless services and the emergence of mobile technologies that require IP address assignments per customer, IPv6 is seen as the core technology in building new generation networks," said IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid. "The recent Department of Defense announcement of building an IPv6 infrastructure for its Global Information Grid has also added to the increased urgency for system vendors to provide IPv6 solutions."

The new Link Street devices are non-blocking, single-chip 8 port 10/100 plus 3 port GbE Switches with support for Spanning Tree, Quality of Service (QoS), 802.1Q VLAN (up to 4096 VLANS) and RMON counters. They contain eight 10BaseT/100Base-TX PHYs and three SerDes interfaces that can be used to connect external Marvell 10/100/1000 triple speed Ethernet PHYs. All the integrated Marvell PHYs support Virtual Cable Tester Technology (VCT) for cable fault diagnostics at the physical layer, alleviating the need for expensive cable testing equipment.

"Small offices and home offices, today, are faced with the need for scaling, security and quality of service for new applications without the added overhead of increased management costs," said Paul Valentine, Marvell's senior director of product marketing. "Marvell is providing QoS enabled devices that can identify and classify IPv6 packets without compromising on the stringent performance requirements that our North American, Asian and European customers demand."