Acterna Gigabit Ethernet Field Tester Adopted by the Largest Telecommunications Carriers in the U.S.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2004

GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2004

FST-2802 Also Widely Accepted Outside of U.S. As Orders in EMEA and Asia-Pacific Regions Grow

Acterna, the largest provider of test and management solutions to telecommunications network operators, today announced that the Acterna FST-2802 TestPad Gigabit Ethernet Services Module, introduced in June 2002, has been approved by every major U.S. telecommunications carrier. This Ethernet and Fibre Channel test instrument, targeted at field service technicians, has rapidly become a global market leader and is one of Acterna's featured products this week in booth 3956 at OFC 2004, Los Angeles.

Weighing less than ten pounds, the Acterna FST-2802 TestPad Gigabit Ethernet Services Module is the only handheld, field solution on the market that enables service providers to provision, install and maintain cost-effective testing of various Ethernet and Fibre Channel services, all from one test module.

"This is a major milestone for Acterna and our field services division because it tells us that we are delivering the right field solutions to our customers at a critical time for them, for us, and for the optical industry as a whole," said Jerry Gentile, general manager for Acterna's telecommunication field services (TFS). "Intense competition and the need to drive growth while reducing operating costs make test and measurement a vital component for all companies deploying Ethernet services. The FST-2802 is proving to be the field service tester of choice for Gigabit Ethernet service providers."

The robust testing capability of the FST-2802 includes end-to-end connectivity, throughput, and quality of service parameters, such as round-trip delay measurements and lost frames. FST-2802 also gathers detailed link statistics and performs BER testing. Its easy-to-use graphical interface empowers technicians with limited experience in testing Ethernet or Fibre Channel services to verify performance parameters and ensure conformance to service level agreements. In addition, the graphical remote control feature allows for remote testing using various connectivity options, such as analog modem and/or Ethernet access.

Additional highlights of the FST-2802 include: Full line rate traffic generation to test 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet services, Fibre Channel testing for both 1.0625 and 2.125 Gbps services , dual-port capability for Ethernet and Fibre Channel traffic generation, variable traffic load characteristics to measure the true performance of the link, automatic Ethernet loopback frame generation, VLAN protocol verification and support for automated RFC2544 benchmarking testing.

The FST-2802 operates on the TestPad platform, which was launched in January 1999 as the industry's first handheld, battery operated, integrated test set, and is widely used by service providers and equipment manufacturers for provisioning and maintaining voice and data networks.

About Acterna

Acterna is the world's largest provider of communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators. A trusted communications test partner for more than eight decades, Acterna offers an unmatched portfolio of award-winning instruments, systems, software and services that help its customers reduce network costs while improving performance and reliability. Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, USA - with European and Asia-Pacific operations based in Eningen, Germany and Hong Kong - Acterna serves nearly every major communications service provider and equipment manufacturer around the world through a skilled sales and support organization in 31 countries.