IRVING, Texas -- NEC America, Inc. (NEC) today announced the general availability of the BlueFire(R) IX1035 router, the newest member of NEC's recently announced BlueFire Access Solutions family. The BlueFire IX1035 is available immediately from NEC's authorized BlueFire dealers and provides distinct advantages in delivering highly reliable connectivity between business locations across town or across the country.The BlueFire IX1035 enables a business to keep its private information private while ensuring that delay-sensitive traffic is delivered securely, on time and intact. The system's Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities prioritize voice traffic, maintaining voice quality while utilizing a single cost-effective network connection."Many organizations need an efficient way to network voice and data together from a branch office back to a headquarters," said Shane Hashimoto, vice president and general manager for NEC America's IP Network Division (IPND). "Our dedicated hardware encryption maximizes throughput much more effectively than other systems that use software encryption. We feel this is a compelling difference for an enterprise, yet it also provides a good solution for small offices that simply need high performance and a reliable data connection to a central office."In addition to built-in firewall capabilities, the IX1035 supports IP Security (IPsec) which allows packet-by-packet encryption and authentication. "We realize that security is a major issue, especially for branch offices, so the IX1035 offers several ways to protect the integrity and privacy of communications," explained John Stafford, assistant general manager of IPND. "But we didn't want to add latency to the voice traffic. Therefore our IPsec is implemented in hardware rather than software, thereby enhancing performance while minimizing delay."NEC Corp.