Riverstone Networks
Encyclopedia
Riverstone Networks, was a provider of networking switching hardware based in Santa Clara, California. Originally part of Cabletron Systems
, and based on an early acquisition of YAGO
, it was one of the many Gigabit Ethernet startups in the mid-1990s. It is now a part of Alcatel-Lucent
and its operations are being wound down via a Chapter 11 filing by their current owners.
over Ethernet
, often for a Metro Ethernet
solution. All the products were multilayer switches (or switch-routers) and specialized in MPLS
VPNs.
dCEF.
The 15K products were based on a different operating system than other Riverstone products, called ROS-X. It was designed to be modular and more like the common command line interface of Cisco.
.
Cabletron Systems
Cabletron Systems was a major New Hampshire, USA-based provider of networking computer equipment throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Cabletron's design and sales methodologies dramatically reduced the cost of Ethernet networking equipment, covering a wide range of Layer 1 and Layer 2 networking...
, and based on an early acquisition of YAGO
YAGO
YAGO was an early LAN startup acquired by Cabletron Systems in the mid-1990s, fueling its growth into Gigabit Ethernet switching and ultimately being re-spun off into the entity Riverstone Networks....
, it was one of the many Gigabit Ethernet startups in the mid-1990s. It is now a part of Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
and its operations are being wound down via a Chapter 11 filing by their current owners.
Company history
- 7 February 2006 - Riverstone's partner Lucent TechnologiesLucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
signed an Asset Purchase agreement to acquire Riverstone Networks - 21 March 2006 - Lucent TechnologiesLucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
wins the auction for Riverstone Networks over rival Ericsson. The final price was $207 million - 18 April 2006 - Lucent TechnologiesLucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
are currently in the process of a merger of equals with AlcatelAlcatelAlcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China.... - 1 December 2006 - Lucent TechnologiesLucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
completed the process of a merger of equals with AlcatelAlcatelAlcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
. Assets of Riverstone Networks are now part of Alcatel-LucentAlcatel-LucentAlcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
Products
All of Riverstone Networks products were geared towards IPInternet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
over Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, often for a Metro Ethernet
Metro Ethernet
A Metro Ethernet is a computer network that covers a metropolitan area and that is based on the Ethernet standard. It is commonly used as a metropolitan access network to connect subscribers and businesses to a larger service network or the Internet...
solution. All the products were multilayer switches (or switch-routers) and specialized in MPLS
Multiprotocol Label Switching
Multiprotocol Label Switching is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, avoiding complex lookups in a routing table. The labels identify virtual links between...
VPNs.
15000 Family
The 15000 Family (referred to as the 15K) differed from the RS family as the 15K is not flow-based. Flow-based routers use the main CPU to process new flows and packets through the switch. The 15K differed by letting the line card processors do the work for the network traffic, leaving the main CPU to work on the system itself. This type of network processing is similar to Cisco'sCisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
dCEF.
The 15K products were based on a different operating system than other Riverstone products, called ROS-X. It was designed to be modular and more like the common command line interface of Cisco.
- 15008 - The highest performance product from Riverstone. It supported a 96 port 10/100 Ethernet card, 12 or 24 port 1GB Ethernet cards and 1 or 2 port 10GB Ethernet cards. Support for ATMAsynchronous Transfer ModeAsynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
and PoSPacket over SONET/SDHPacket over SONET/SDH, abbreviated POS, is a communications protocol for transmitting packets in the form of the Point to Point Protocol over SDH or SONET, which are both standard protocols for communicating digital information using lasers or light emitting diodes over optical fibre at high...
was planned. - 15100/15200 - Designed with the same architecture and operating system as the 15008, the 15100 and 15200 were designed more for an access/distribution network role. They were semi-modular in design with some fixed 1G Ethernet ports and GBIC uplinks for either 1GB or 10GB.
RS Family
The RS family of products were flow-based multilayer switches. They ran ROS software, which had a command line interface but could also be configured via SNMPSimple Network Management Protocol
Simple Network Management Protocol is an "Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks. Devices that typically support SNMP include routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, and more." It is used mostly in network management systems to monitor...
.
- 1x00 - Fixed hardware configuration
- 3x00 - Semi-modular in design, came with 32 fixed 100BaseT Ethernet ports and 2 modular bays
- 8x00 - Fully modular hardware, came in either 8 slot (8000) or 16 slot (8600) versions. The modules for the 8x00 included Control Modules, 100BaseT Ethernet, 1000BaseT Ethernet, 1000BaseX GibabitEthernet with interchangeable GBICs, including PoS, ATM, SerialSerial communicationsIn telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels...
, T1/E1, and T3/E3. - 38000 - Fully modular hardware, differed from the rest of the RS range physically due to the modular slots being vertical.
ES Family
- ES 2010 - Fixed 24 10/100 port multilayer switch designed for network access/network edge role. It had two GBIC ports for 1G Ethernet uplinks. The ES range did not support WANWide area networkA wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations...
ports or MPLS.