With the launch of its Aspen 8800 enterprise LAN switches, Extreme Networks Inc. is challenging network designers to rethink the way they build systems to deal with voice traffic and growing internal security threats.

With the rise of VOIP (voice over IP) and the exponential growth of malicious traffic, Extreme officials said they believe the requirement for voice-quality connections, continuous uptime and stronger security suggests that a two-tier network architecture must replace today's more prevalent three-tiered designs.

"We think less is more. That way, you make fewer hops and have fewer moving parts," said Varun Nagaraj, vice president of product management at the Santa Clara, Calif., company. "The tier that faces the user is the unified access tier or layer—the user- or device-facing side. Then there is the core of the network, where the data center servers connect and where you connect to the WAN."

The Aspen 8800 Series, with Extreme's new, more modular ExtremeWare XOS operating system, addresses the unified access layer. The switches allow a more robust edge network to be built, overcoming deficiencies in performance and availability that have existed in typical edge switches, Nagaraj said.

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