Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.

Fujitsu Enables TDM and Packet Convergence with Enhancements to Market-Leading FLASHWAVE® 4500 MSSP

New RPR over SONET, DS3 Transmux, and High Density OC-48 Interface Cards Deliver More Capacity and Provisioning Flexibility for Metro Networks

Richardson, TX, January 11, 2006 — Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., a leading supplier of IT and wireline/wireless networking solutions, announced today a series of significant service, functionality, and density enhancements to its flagship FLASHWAVE® 4500 Multiservice Switching Platform (MSSP). The addition of IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) efficiencies, DS3 transmux capabilities, and double the OC-48 interface density will help keep Fujitsu at the top of the North American SONET/SDH market. Fujitsu has held the top spot in this market for 13 consecutive quarters according to 3Q05 Dell’Oro Group research, and currently maintains a market lead over its nearest competitor by over 12 percent.

With this release, SONET, Ethernet over SONET (EoS), RPR, Generic Framing Procedure (GFP), Virtual Concatenation (VCAT), and high/low order grooming and switching capabilities have been combined on a single, high-capacity platform. This powerful mix of service delivery technologies allows carriers to offer a wide variety of traditional DS1, DS3 and OC-n private line services, plus carrier-class 10 Mbps to Gigabit Ethernet Private Line (EPL) services, from a single network.

“Our FLASHWAVE 4500 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) offers the ultimate in TDM and packet convergence by combining the legendary reliability, availability and Operations, Administration, Maintenance & Provisioning (OAM&P) of SONET with the robust efficiencies and multipoint connectivity required for provisioning packet-based services,” said Bill Erickson, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Fujitsu Network Communications. “Its flexible architecture supports a smooth migration path to an MSSP configuration and allows carrier-class Ethernet services to be delivered over existing SONET networks.”

With the addition of a new 12-port DS3 Transmux interface card, carriers can leverage the VT1.5 switch fabric of the FLASHWAVE 4500 platform to maximize the efficiency of TDM circuits. Each DS3 Transmux card can gather hundreds of low capacity VT1.5 circuits from DS1 interface cards or poorly utilized DS3 or OC-n connections, and multiplex them into fully utilized, high capacity STS-1 payloads. By transmitting a lesser quantity of fully utilized STS-1 payloads instead of many partially utilized payloads, carriers can reduce their Interoffice Facility (IOF) transport costs. Consolidating circuits in this manner before they enter a Digital Cross-connect System (DCS) also maximizes its switching efficiency and helps carriers postpone or eliminate the costly capital expense of adding or expanding a DCS.

In many ways, the new four-port 10/100Base-T and two-port Gigabit Ethernet RPR over SONET interface cards perform a similar function as the DS3 Transmux cards, but they operate at Layer 2 on Ethernet circuits. RPR cards create customized partitions between TDM and packet bandwidth. Within the packet partition, the RPR cards support multiple classes of service and perform statistical multiplexing of Ethernet packets to maximize the utilization of path bandwidth for bursty data applications and allow more Ethernet services to be provisioned on a ring than with SONET alone. Ethernet/RPR Performance Monitoring (PM) and alarm management are integrated into the embedded management plane, allowing carriers to manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) without an additional management infrastructure. Sub-50 millisecond ring protection is maintained using BLSR/UPSR for SONET and node re-route, steering, and protection for RPR per the IEEE 802.17 specification.

“The FLASHWAVE 4500 platform has consistently received our highest rating (“Very Threatening”) among products in the metro edge class because it offers the attractive combination of capacity, optical port density, DWDM, and interface variety (including digital video and Ethernet),” said Jason Marcheck, senior optical infrastructure analyst at Current Analysis. “The FLASHWAVE 4500 platform has been deployed by many carriers, including several RBOCs, and these new data, M13 transmux and density enhancements add to an already impressive MSPP-to-MSSP upgrade strategy that puts the system at the head of its class.”

The FLASHWAVE 4500 platform combines the benefits of an ultra high-capacity core network hub with advanced multiservice capabilities that allow Ethernet and broadband video services to be easily provisioned across existing SONET metropolitan transport networks. New dual port OC-48 units, which double the OC-48 density of the platform from an already powerful 60 ports to 120 ports in a multishelf FLASHWAVE 4500 system, give carriers more flexibility and performance within their networks. Now, up to 15 OC-192 interoffice rings, 60 OC-48 interoffice/access rings, and hundreds of OC-12/OC-3 access rings can co-exist in the same FLASHWAVE 4500 shelf with DS1, DS3/EC1, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet and DVB-ASI circuits.

Expansion shelves with 100 Gbps of interface capacity per shelf can be easily added to a standard FLASHWAVE 4500 MSPP to support core grooming applications that traditionally require a high-cost DCS. By supporting a simple MSPP-to-MSSP migration as demand for increased bandwidth dictates, the FLASHWAVE 4500 platform simplifies sparing and planning, and minimizes the impact on existing operating systems, procedures and staff.

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About Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. creates and delivers robust wireline and wireless solutions that power next-generation telecommunication networks. With an unequalled portfolio of IT and telecom products and the support of Fujitsu Limited, a $44.5B company with over 150,000 professionals in more than 100 countries, Fujitsu helps its customers fuse information and networking technology with commercial value. Over 320,000 Fujitsu network elements have been deployed by all major carriers across North America. As the metro market leader in both SONET and ROADM technology, the fundamental building blocks of next-generation networks, Fujitsu is helping customers take networking beyond convergence.
For more information, please see: http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

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