Dulles, VA. September 28, 2004 – Encore Networks, a leading developer of integrated network security and access products, today announced it will introduce the VSR-1200™, a high performance Virtual Private Network (VPN) router at Italy’s SatExpo Conference and Expo. The new product is designed to deliver high throughput and encryption, simultaneously, over combined broadband satellite and terrestrial networks.

Dedicated encryption engines boost the number of encrypted tunnels that may be active at one time to 1200;
Selective Layer Encryption (Patent Pending) prepares encrypted IP packets in a format that permits TCP spoofing by Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) features of satellite modems.

The VSR-1200™ satisfies the increasing demand for broadband VPN services over satellite networks to deliver bandwidth-hungry applications and to provide higher availability as a disaster-recovery alternative. Multiple units can be interconnected together for load-sharing and higher level of redundancy. Applying Virtual Redundant Router Protocol (VRRP), the multiple VSR-1200s become a redundant, high-performance VPN router.

According to Infonetics Research, the combined VPN market will grow from last year's $18 billion to a value of $38 billion in 2008. Demand for VPN security services will also grow from $3.1 billion in 2003 to $7.7 billion in 2008. Of this security sector, Northern Sky Research forecasts the number of global IP VPN Satellite sites will grow from the current number of fifty thousand to almost three hundred thousand in 2008 and will be dominated by the large enterprise market.

“Customers requirements for alternative and cost-effective broadband solutions to support their high bandwidth applications, as well as the ability to connect large number of remote locations are driving the demand for connectivity via satellite networks,” stated Abir Hnidi, Encore Networks Chief Technical Officer. “The release of the VSR-1200™, with its patent pending Selective Layer Encryption capabilities, addresses this demand by allowing the seamless integration of satellite into enterprise networks and has reinforced Encore’s commitment to the broadband satellite VPN market.”

The VSR-1200™ design is based on a next-generation RISC processor running at 800 MHz and purpose-built VPN acceleration processors that support different encryption schemes such as DES, 3DES and AES. The hardware delivers encrypted throughput of up to 500 Mbps. This high-performance architecture can meet the network scalability and application security requirements of carriers, and also fits into central sites of large enterprise customers who operate their own VPNs. The VSR-1200™ provides two Gigabit Ethernet ports (LAN and WAN), one 10/100BaseT Ethernet port (DMZ), eight 10/100BaseT switched Ethernet ports and two PCI slots for future expansion.

The carrier class VSR-1200™ provides high performance, end-to-end VPN solutions and includes standard features such as IP routing via Selective Layer Encryption, advanced QoS capabilities, a stateful packet inspection firewall, compression and optimized bandwidth utilization, embedded address management capabilities such as NAT and Private Address Translation (PrAT) In addition to its unique VPN features like SLE, the VSR-1200™ also interoperates with standards-based routers using the well-known formats for IPsec and GRE.

Encore’s feature-rich ELIOS™ operating system in the VSR-1200™ provides interoperability with all known methods of TCP acceleration for satellite circuits. Compatibility with all satellite modems ensures smooth and easy deployment across multi-vendor satellite and terrestrial networks. This seamless SW architecture ensures backward compatibility and future interoperability with other Encore Networks VPN products; BANDIT™, BANDIT™-Plus, BANDIT™-IP and VSR-30™, which have been certified by VPN Consortium (VPNC)

A high-port-density Remote Data Unit (RDU) module makes the VSR-1200™ an ideal fit for the smooth migration of legacy data applications to broadband IP networks. By performing protocol conversion and spoofing, the VSR-1200™ optimizes the utilization of satellite bandwidth: the router forwards only the data payload, while locally acknowledging polling protocols such as bisync, poll-select, ALC, SDLC and others.

"VPN routers for remote sites have become popular despite the large expense commonly associated with terminating large numbers of their encrypted tunnels at a central site such as a data center," said Bill Flanagan, president of Flanagan Consulting, Sterling, VA. "The VSR-1200™ offers not only a compact and economical solution for high-volume encryption, it also has the unique ability to support TCP acceleration of those encrypted connections over satellites--and it deals with those legacy protocols that seem impossible to avoid."

Available in 4Q04, the VSR-1200™ carries a list price of $11,995.