Appian Communications Sets the Bar For Delivering Global, Carrier-Class Ethernet Services.

Business/Technology Editors

BOXBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2001

New Hardware/Software Release Marks General Availability of Appian's

OSAP 

Appian Communications(TM), the first to deliver an optical edge solution opening today's optical networks to high growth packet services, has announced a new software and hardware release for its Optical Services Activation Platform (OSAP(TM)) that enables service providers to deploy carrier-class Ethernet services with standards-based interoperability, five-nine's availability, service level control and end-to-end manageability. With these new capabilities, Appian is broadening the Ethernet services market to include global, secure services that meet the service level assurance and reliability needs of demanding private line data, video, and voice applications. As a result, providers can for the first time extend Ethernet services beyond current metro area LAN-to-LAN and Internet access applications to include global, premium services such as Ethernet Private Lines.

"The early success of carrier Ethernet services is a strong step toward establishing Ethernet as a standard service interface. Customers will demand granular, scalable and on-demand bandwidth. But these services have so far focused on metro area LAN-to-LAN and Internet access applications," said Chris Nicoll, vice president at Current Analysis. "While emerging providers have successfully brought high-speed services to their targeted markets, there is an untapped opportunity to deliver global, private line quality services that bring the simplicity and low cost of Ethernet to the mass market. Appian enables providers to leverage their existing SONET/SDH infrastructure to deliver Ethernet services between points around the world with carrier-class reliability, scale and manageability. It presents a great opportunity for existing carriers to develop new sources of service revenue."

"The telx bandwidth trading service relies on premium bandwidth being available on an as-needed basis across many diverse customer applications," stated Hunter Newby, executive vice president of strategic planning for telx. "Our customers, without exception, require not only rapid response, but also five-nine's service availability to assure that bandwidth is there when it's needed. The features Appian is announcing are key to extending the reliability, manageability and service level control taken for granted in today's SONET/SDH infrastructure to next generation Ethernet services."

Industry-first Features Raise the Carrier-Class Ethernet Services Bar

The marketplace often associates "carrier class" with hardware platform features such as redundancy and NEBS compliance. However, from a provider's perspective the carrier-class definition applies to an end-to-end service that must include five-nine's availability, the global scale and manageability enabled by standards, the service flexibility and control needed to offer differentiated service level agreements, and the ability to integrate into a comprehensive billing, provisioning and management infrastructure.

Appian's newly announced software and hardware features, when added to the robust features already available, further raise the Ethernet services bar to include the following capabilities:

-- Appian is the first to announce support for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) X.86 "Ethernet over transmission payloads" recommendation, which has now been recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Ethernet over SONET working group. ITU X.86 defines a standard approach for linking, or mapping, Ethernet into a transmission payload (e.g., SONET or SDH). It enables carriers for the first time to deliver standards-based Ethernet Private Lines as premium rate services that can be provisioned across the global network with end-to-end traffic segregation, security, interoperability, and guaranteed service rates.

-- The OSAP's Active Flow Control, which is based on IEEE 802.3x Ethernet flow control, is key to bringing private line service stability to next generation Ethernet services. By automatically throttling a customer's premise device as it reaches a critical traffic threshold, this new feature eliminates the indiscriminate packet loss previously experienced as high-speed LAN traffic was funneled to lower speed WAN "pipes." This capability is key to supporting loss-sensitive applications such as Storage Area Networking and even legacy SNA applications that are dependent on highly stable, no loss data services.

-- Appian is also announcing the submission of key patents protecting the OSAP's Dynamic Service-based Queuing (DSQ) architecture and packet scheduling mechanism. This advanced QoS architecture is central to the OSAP's ability to deliver TDM/private line quality latency and data jitter, which has been validated in some of the most demanding carrier labs around the world. For providers this means Ethernet services can now meet the service level requirements of applications such as H.323 VoIP, full broadcast quality videoconferencing and ultra-time-critical transaction processing.

-- The OSAP is the first to enable five-nine's Ethernet service availability to customers via its Ethernet media card redundancy and IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation support. With these new features, providers can now offer full 1:N equipment protection that includes the Ethernet link to the customer for customers such as wholesale bandwidth providers who must meet the highest availability requirements.

-- In addition, Appian announced that the OSAP has passed NEBS level 3 certification testing, validating its Central Office (CO) readiness with the important transition from a NEBS-compliant design to a fully NEBS-certified platform.

Ethernet Private Lines: A Global Service Opportunity

Ethernet Private Lines represent a new, premium service opportunity that combines the low cost and flexibility of Ethernet with the resilience, quality, and scale of SONET/SDH networks to deliver globally secure, carrier-class services with the quality of service needed by today's private line voice, data and video applications.

Customers benefit from this migration with lower equipment and administrative costs as they replace diverse WAN access technologies, such as DSUs/CSUs and FRADs, with a simple Ethernet service interface. The software-tunable interface also allows customers to buy bandwidth in granular steps that better match their needs, which can translate into more revenue sooner for the carrier. Carriers reduce operating costs as they replace truck rolls and equipment upgrades with rapid, software-activated service changes. And because Ethernet Private Lines are directly provisioned as segregated and secure point-to-point circuits through the existing transport and back office infrastructure, providers can rapidly deploy new revenue-generating services on a global scale with minimal operating and capital expenditures.

"According to Dataquest, the U.S. market for private line services will grow to over $12 billion by 2002," said Karen Barton, vice president of marketing at Appian. "By migrating conventional T1/E1 and beyond services to Ethernet Private Lines that can be upgraded on demand via simple software upgrades rather than truck rolls, carriers can create new sources of service revenues with reduced operating costs."

About Appian Communications

Appian is removing the final bottleneck to optical service revenues with an optical edge solution optimized for the migration from traditional TDM services to high growth packet services. Designed to leverage existing transport and back office infrastructures, Appian's award winning Optical Services Activation Platform (OSAP(TM)) and AppianVista(TM) services manager combine the low cost and flexibility of Ethernet with the resilience, manageability, and global scale of SONET/SDH networks to create significant time to market and profitability opportunities. With its integrated TDM support, the OSAP offers providers a smooth migration path from today's rigid, circuit-optimized voice and data offerings to a new generation of carrier-class Ethernet services that include Ethernet Private Lines, Ethernet Virtual Networks, and scaleable Ethernet Internet Access. Appian is marketing its products to emerging and existing providers around the world. The Appian team has helped drive the market leadership of respected telecom equipment providers such as Lucent (NASDAQ: LU), Nortel (NYSE: NT) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO). For more information about Appian Communications, please visit its Web site at www.appiancom.com.

Appian Communications, the Appian Communications logo, Optical Services Activation Platform, OSAP, AppianVista and Optical Data Protection are trademarks and Intelligent Optical Edge is a service mark of Appian Communications, Inc. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.