CADVision powers up for profitability with the Lucent PortMaster 3 CADVision is an Internet services provider (ISP) based in Calgary, Alberta (Canada). Geoff Shmigelsky, president of CADVision, started the company as a software development firm while he was still in college in the early 1990s. Because of the explosive demand for Internet access, by 1994 CADVision had become a "pure" ISP. Today the company boasts over 50,000 dial-up subscribers. As CADVision's subscriber base has grown, so too have its service offerings, which include email, web-page hosting and development, banner-ad space, iPass roaming, and a wide range of line-speed services -- from 14.4 K to asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) supporting 1.5 MB upstream and up to 7 MB downstream service. The challenge With more than 71,000 modem calls and 270,000 email messages to handle daily, CADVision needs the most robust InterNetworking Systems server equipment available. Since the company first began handling dial-access calls four years ago, it has relied on Lucent PortMaster® 2E-30 asynchronous communications servers to support its corporate web and individual dial-up subscriber accounts. "Last year, we realized we needed InterNetworking Systems equipment that could handle a lot more traffic on a per chassis basis," says Judy Campbell, general manager for CADVision. "Not only that, we needed levels of reliability and scalability that could accommodate an unpredictable surge in demand for our access services." The Lucent solution In March of 1998, CADVision began swapping out its installed base of our PortMaster 2E products with new PortMaster 3 integrated access servers. The company is continuing this deployment at the rate of two to five units monthly, until all 94 PortMaster 2E devices have been replaced. Each PortMaster 3 chassis supports up to 60 simultaneous modem connections--twice that of the PortMaster 2E. Multiple PortMaster 3 units can be rack mounted and linked via Multichassis Point-to-Point Protocol (MP) to interoperate as a single chassis able to support hundreds of users. CADVision manages its network by making heavy use of the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) feature supported by the PortMaster 3. Using OSPF, the company dynamically routes its client networks to any terminal server in its modem pool and thus creates more flexible network designs. To track the number of online users at any given time, CADVison uses its own customized login scripts and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) tools. But for large-scale configuration changes, the company relies on a combination of customized scripts and the Lucent PMVisionTM graphical user interface (GUI) utility. The results Growth-driven ISPs like CADVision need InterNetworking Systems equipment that can accommodate an increasing variety of end-user applications at minimum cost. The Lucent PortMaster 3 integrated access server meets this requirement by consolidating multiple InterNetworking Systems functions into a single, space-saving unit. "Replacing our PortMaster 2 units with the new PortMaster 3 units has allowed us to standardize equipment because all inbound lines can be digital," explains CADVision's chief technology officer, Alpha T. Murray. "That means, as our customers upgrade their service, we can quickly and easily move lines from our lower-speed pools to the higher-speed pools and thus eliminate busy signals, which are a high cost factor in our business. Reducing busy signals means lower prices and happier customers." "Lucent PortMaster products have been the cornerstone technology of our business," Murray concludes."They are easy to administer, offer superior scalability, and have always performed beyond our expectations." For more information about CADVision Development Corporation, visit the company's web site at http://www.cadvision.com.