By: Christine Martz
Meaning of AC – “Access Concentrator”, is a remote access
device that efficiently forwards data, allowing multiple calls to come in over one port from
the telephone company, resulting in higher call densities than remote access servers.
Basically, an access concentrator can support dial-in modem calls, ISDN connections, frame
relay traffic, and multiprotocol routing. PPPoE is a type of access concentrator. PPPoE
is used to allow Internet Service Providers to use their existing authentication systems
from their Dial-Up service on a Broadband / Ethernet based service.
“…The ISP or carrier server must be digitally connected for a 56 kb/s
connection to occur. In that regard, the K56 community has a significant advantage. In fact,
according to a December 1996 study by Del' Oro market research, Rockwell and Lucent have a
94% share of the ISP digital access concentrator T-1/primary rate ISDN installed base.” [David Mayes - Ascend]
“An access concentrator is a system that telecom service providers and private enterprise
owners use to concentrate large amounts of incoming data traffic through the central office
or LAN. There are various types of equipment used to concentrate traffic, including routers,
bridges, gateways, servers and DSLAMs.” [PairGain Technologies, Inc.]
“…The access concentrator supports virtual routing - the implementation of multiple
software routers called contexts and/or domains in one physical device. In an open access
network, the access concentrator associates a context or set of domains with each ISP
instead of having a different physical router for each ISP. The access concentrator is
able to forward traffic based on PPP session information as well as IP addresses.
” [Emy Tseng - ITC Consortium]
“…An Access Concentrator is an intelligent networking device that sits at the edge of
the IP cloud between the Internet Service Provider (ISP) backbone network and the end
users (or end user private networks). Its main job is to handle all the connections
between the two parties. An AC, which can act as both a router and a switch, is built
to handle many connections and to provide many IP services such as Virtual Private
Networks (VPN), management control, and security services.” [North Carolina State University]
“…An IP access concentrator is a network element which enables ISP's to provide
dial-up Internet access via the public switched telephone network or WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol) access across a mobile network. ” [Nokia]
“…PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) provides the ability to connect a network of hosts over
a simple bridging access device to a remote Access Concentrator. With this model, each host
utilizes it's own PPP stack and the user is presented with a familiar user interface.
Access control, billing and type of service can be done on a per-user, rather than a per-site,
basis.” [Fine Point Networks]
