Hi Ivo,
The ASF (Alteon Switch Firewall) is a very high performance solution using
the CheckPoint engine. > 4Gbps throughput is possible. For a single ASF
system you would need 2 components (ASF Accelerator & ASF Director). For a
high available system you would need 4 systems (2 x 2).
The Alteon Accelerators are ASIC based appliance switches that perform
session-handoff to the directors. The director is in fact a Checkpoint
implementation that performs the policy check. The director returns an "ok"
or "not ok" to the accelerator switch which then allows or denies the
session.
Compared to other CP solutions, the sessions state is maintained on the
accelerator switch. This allows *very* fast packet switching for all
subsequent packets for an established session.
This technique looks similar to the Juniper Netscreen solution. In this case
the 'director' functions are performed by the Netscreen's internal
management CPU.
Looking at the scalability aspect: the ASF cluster is extendible, you can
add more directors to increase FW & VPN capacity. The Juniper netscreen
basically needs a forklift upgrade if the advanced license is already
installed.
ASF does support all features of CP, a separate integraded IDP is not (yet)
available. Integrated IDP for Juniper is expected soon.
If you're very happy with the CP management interface you should consider
the ASF. Otherwise a Juniper Netscreen would be a great alternative (less
components, single vendor=support)
Have a look at www.nortelnetworks.com for more info on the ASF. If you need
anything specific just let me know, I might get you some additional info
(also for Juniper :-).
Cheers, Mike
Hello List:
I need to test one firewall solution where one of the requisites is a
throughput of 1Gb.
After read some specs, I think the Switched Firewall 6000 Series it's a good
choice, but I haven't find good information on the web.
When I read this mailing list you talk about every other solution like PIX,
Nokia, NetScreen but it's rare talk about Alteon, what's the problem with
it?
Could someone point me to Alteon stuff?
P.S. - Sorry about my very bad English
