Metrobility Optical Systems, Inc. won the Best of Show Award for its line protection and restoral product at the Cabling Systems Conference & Exhibition 2003. The device is designed to provide redundant data paths to prevent data loss due to cable or port failure.
The conference, which was sponsored by Cabling Installation & Maintenance (www.cable-install.com) and produced by PennWell, took place Sept. 22-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA.
"We are pretty excited," says Raylene Kadrmas, marketing communications manager for Metrobility (www.metrobility.com), based in Merrimack, NH.
During the exhibit portion of the conference, attendees were given the chance to vote on what they considered to be the best new product being showcased. Information on all products were presented in a section of the exhibit hall called the Product Showcase. Attendees were each given the chance to submit a ballot that chose the product they considered Best of Show.
The attendees chose Metrobility's new GigE "redundant twister," which is designed to offer both primary and backup links between two network switches, routers or bridges to help ensure network reliability, minimize network downtime and maintain the security of Gigabit Ethernet backbones.
The "redundant twister" monitors links between network devices and automatically switches to the backup link when the primary link fails. It then restores the primary link when that link status returns to normal.
The GigE "redundant twister" is based on the company's patented "redundant twister" product line for Ethernet and Fast Ethernet. These units have been deployed in U.S. stock exchanges and other mission-critical applications. The GigE version will support Metrobility's SONAR (Switch-On No Activity Received) feature, which senses switch activity as well as link. Another feature, Network on Demand, allows IT administrators to select automatic failover or manual path selection for network maintenance and backup operations.
The GigE "redundant twister" will be available as both a line card for the company's Radiance R5000 Central Service Platform and as a standalone for customer premise applications. The models introduced provide copper to redundant copper, copper to redundant fiber, and fiber to redundant fiber media types. The products will begin shipping in February.
Metrobility manufactures media converters and extended LAN applications.