Nortel Networks 7400 - Manual (Page 92)

Alteon Switched Firewall (ASF) 83
Alteon Switched Firewall
(ASF)
Overview
The Alteon Switched Firewall (ASF) is a multi-component solution managed as a single system.
The system is a tight confederation of two key components - an Alteon Switched Firewall Accelerator,
plus up to six Alteon Switched Firewall Directors. The software is a combination of the Alteon Switched
Firewall OS, providing session acceleration and switching functionality and the market-leading Firewall-1
software from Check Point.
The Alteon Switched Firewall Director performs policy checking for every new connection request, manages
the connection table and specifies the rules for handling packets in a session. After a connection is
established, the Alteon Switched Firewall Director passes its connection table to the Alteon Switched Firewall
Accelerator. The Switched Firewall Accelerator applies the firewall rules at wire speed to subsequent packets
within an existing connection. As a result, up to 90% of traffic is accelerated as these packets bypass the core
firewall logic on the Switched Firewall Director. This unique acceleration technology, only found on the Alteon
Switched Firewall System, makes it one of the leading high performance firewalls on the market.
Customer Profile
Today, businesses need to carefully manage both
capital and operational expenditures, while
continuing to quickly respond to changing IT
infrastructure requirements. The Alteon Switched
Firewall provides a data centre solution that meets
customer’s needs to simplify operations and control
costs. With security at the forefront of all network
designs and with the use of the OPSEC certified
software ensuring strong security as a given, this
allows customers to focus on other aspects of
deployment.
• Time sensitive applications such as Streaming
and VoIP services will benefit from the very low
latency imposed by the ASF
• Customers who have a large user base making
multiple connections requiring raw throughput
and session set up such as wireless users, will be
able to leverage the power of the ASF
• Customers seeking to centrally manage a large
deployment of global firewalls will benefit from
the single management UI and the Check Point
NG Management Platform
All of the above is underpinned by Check Point NG,
the market leading, defacto industry standard
security software.
Key Points
• Transparent deployment into existing Check Point
firewall infrastructures leveraging Check Point’s
advanced firewall and security management
services.
• Overall simplification of firewall and hosting
infrastructures in terms of deployment, day to
day management and troubleshooting.
• Operation costs are minimised because
administrators no longer must configure each
firewall as added. The first firewall can be
provisioned in less than 30 minutes with a
configuration wizard. The Single System Image
replication and management wizard capabilities
of the Alteon Switched Firewall System makes
adding new Alteon Switched Firewall Directors a
plug and play operation.
• With its innovative architecture and plug and
play provisioning of firewall resources, the Alteon
Switched Firewall allows Enterprises and Service
Providers to lower capital expenditures and
increase their return on investment. Capital
expenditures are reduced to a "pay as your traffic
grows" flexible architecture.
• Protection of existing staff skills, training and
processes while deploying advanced Alteon
Switched Firewall services.