Note: The Freeway 3212 is no longer in production, except by special arrangement with existing customers. New installations should use a Freeway 3115, a Freeway 3215, or a Freeway 3415 instead.

The Freeway 3212 supports up to 24 serial ports while consuming only a 2U space (about 3.5 inches) in a 19-inch rack. Two 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN connections are standard, and three PCI slots are available to accommodate either Intelligent Communications Processor boards (which manage the serial ports), or additional Ethernet interfaces. A hard disk or flash disk can be used for local storage of boot parameters and for custom network applications.

1. Intelligent Communications Processor boards (ICPs) manage the protocols and contain serial ports that connect to the WAN. The Freeway 3212 uses ICP2432 boards.


2. The maximum number of ports depends on the electrical interface. The larger number is the maximum ports when using the EIA-232 electrical interface. The smaller number is the maximum ports for all other electrical interfaces.


3. Ethernet interfaces after the first two occupy PCI slots which are normally occupied by an ICP board. Therefore, when configured for three Ethernets, the Freeway 3212 can only have three ICP boards installed, and thus is limited to 24 serial WAN lines (12 WAN lines if all ICPs are configured to use an electrical interface other than RS-232).


4. The magnetic IDE or SATA hard disk is optional; if specified, it replaces the IDE or SATA flash disk.


5. Weight excludes ICP boards.

The unit is encased in a black, 2U rackmount-type chassis which is 17 inches wide (19 inches to the outside of the rack-mount ears), 18 inches deep, and 3.5 inches tall. Airflow is from front to back, with two internal 50 CFM fans pulling filtered air into the case from the front, and blowing it out of the case at the back.

A full-width door at the front of the unit swings downward (or can be removed) to expose the reset and power switches and to give access to the DVD/CDROM drive. Power and hard-disk-activity LEDs on the front panel are visible either with the door open or closed. The power and reset switches and the DVD/CDROM drive are accessible only when the door is opened.

Connectors for a VGA monitor, a keyboard, a serial console, and two 10BaseT/100BaseTX Ethernet cables are available at the back of the chassis. The WAN connectors or additional Ethernet connectors are also at the back of the chassis.

Refer to the Freeway 3212 Installation Guide for further information.