Allot Communications Announces Initiative to Address Growing Bandwidth Congestion in Carrier Data Networks.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2002

Latest NetEnforcer release enables carriers to minimize

network congestion, deploy new service options and better

monitor and control network resources

Allot Communications, a premier provider of policy-based networking solutions, announced today a new initiative to help carriers and cable multiple system operators (MSOs) address problems associated with increasing network congestion.

The initiative builds on momentum gained from Allot's September 2002 acquisition of NetReality (http://www.allot.com/html/pr_sep_24_02_netreality.shtm), a leading provider of policy-based bandwidth management devices for wide area networks. This, combined with the release of new carrier-grade software enhancements to Allot's flagship product -- the NetEnforcer policy-based networking platform -- enables carriers to better manage network bandwidth and provide a consistent level of service, as well as tiered services which can generate new revenues.

The new initiative addresses the key issues carriers are facing today -- the need to control the use of their network and to increase revenues by providing supplemental services to their subscribers. The need to control the use of the network comes mainly from the increasing popularity of peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, such as KaZaA, which enable casual subscribers to download and upload audio and video files. The P2P traffic causes congestion in carrier networks as well as changing the balance of inbound and outbound traffic, which is designed in many networks to be asymmetric. In addition, enterprise customers are looking for ways to limit or ban this traffic due to liability issues.

Allot's solutions enable carriers to control the use of P2P traffic. Carriers who offer managed services can also prioritize their customers' traffic so mission-critical applications will get guaranteed performance over VPN or Internet connections. With these policy-based traffic management capabilities, integrated with Operational Support System (OSS) and Customer Care and Billing (CCB) systems, carriers can offer their customers a range of services, including tiered services, class of service and enhanced traffic reporting facilities for monthly fees.

"Commercial service providers are starting to use policy-based bandwidth shaping devices instead of over-provisioning extra bandwidth to address problems associated with increasing network congestion. Service providers are looking for new ways to better use their existing infrastructure to increase revenues and reduce costs, offer new services that will attract new customers, and retain existing customers," said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, senior analyst, Gartner Dataquest. "Policy-based bandwidth shaping devices let carriers and cable MSOs set policies and monitor network bandwidth per subscriber to ensure availability and optimum network performance."

"Allot's initiative to help carriers and cable multiple system operators address problems associated with increasing network congestion and a competitive service environment is well timed," said PG Narayanan, CEO of Allot Americas. "The NetEnforcer product line, with its enhanced software platform, lets service providers set policies and control how bandwidth in their network is allocated. With improved visibility and control of network operations, service providers can market new revenue opportunities, such as tiered services, where they can substantiate higher fees for guaranteed bandwidth per subscriber based on service levels down to the application level."

In conjunction with the initiative, Allot has introduced a new software release for its carrier-grade NetEnforcer bandwidth management platform. The software enhancements give carriers new deployment options, increased reporting flexibility, and significant new protocol support.

The NetEnforcer platform now gives carriers greater visibility into -- and a better level of detail about -- traffic on data networks. This is important for carriers with cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) deployments that dynamically assign Internet protocol (IP) addresses using dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and manage customers via a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) server.

The new NetEnforcer software release also includes an enhancement that gives service providers the ability to generate powerful reports for customers. It provides tabular and graphical reports on customer usage patterns that display information in an easy-to-understand format. As a result, carriers have the flexibility to define, sort, filter and display information according to policies defined on setup, using categories such as client and server addresses, transmission control protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) port numbers, time period, and application content including hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and the uniform resource locator (URL), Web content type, pages, and files. This level of visibility into network traffic and bandwidth usage enables carriers to better monitor and control their networks and market advance services to their customers.

About Allot Communications

Allot Communications' policy-powered networking initiative offers bandwidth management solutions for enterprises and IP service providers that improve application performance, reduce network costs, and enable the deployment of delay-sensitive applications. In enterprise networks, Allot's solutions allow network managers to enable quality of service (QoS) by linking business policies to specific network actions that improve users' productivity and contain networking costs. In service provider networks, Allot's QoS and service level agreement (SLA) enforcement solutions maximize return on investment (ROI) by managing over-subscription, throttling P2P traffic on upstream and downstream links, and delivering tiered services and classes of service.

Allot Communications has regional offices in the USA, France, Japan, Singapore and Israel. Allot is represented worldwide through OEM and distributor channels. Visit Allot on the Web at http://www.allot.com.