Appian More Than Doubles Metro Access Network Revenue Potential and Brings Unprecedented, Sonet-Class Data Protection to IP/Optical Edge.

Business/Technology Editors

NFOEC Booth #817

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2000

Appian's Breakthrough Optical Data Protection(TM) (ODP(TM))

Addresses the Public Network's Toughest Provisioning, Reliability

and Survivability Requirements, Delivers High-Speed

Data Services At a Fraction of Current Costs.

Appian Communications, developers of the award-winning OSAP, the first intelligent optical access platform for the edge of service provider networks, today released information on its Optical Data Protection(TM) (ODP) protocol, the industry's first data-centric optical local loop technology that brings SONET's market-proven survivability, management and scalability characteristics into highly-efficient packet switched networks. ODP substantially expands the transport potential of local access rings, enabling them for the first time to serve far greater numbers of customers while preserving the stringent reliability of the local loop's optical data transport. In an average OC3 ring, ODP can increase the provisioned services by a factor of two or more, driving down the cost of delivering high-speed data services. Appian made the announcement at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) in Denver.

ODP is the first protection mechanism that allows sharing of optical paths between multiple data services on a ring with sub-50 msec switchover at Layer 1, the universally accepted benchmark for service transport. ODP eliminates the narrow customer-to-ring ratios that have, until now, burdened service providers with both massive capital costs and delays in service delivery and revenue recognition as the price for customer acquisition. Service providers and industry watchers praise ODP's ability to support unprecedented levels of resiliency and bandwidth utilization, resulting in customer service flexibility and retention.

"Customer retention is the single largest issue that service providers face over the next five years," noted Chris Nicoll of Current Analysis. "By giving metro access providers the ability to control the economics, quality and immediacy of service delivery, Appian is fundamentally evolving the competitiveness and customer-base stability of its carrier customers."

"The standards bodies have recognized the urgent need to map application data directly into the carrier transport systems in order to sustain reliability while growing the potential capacity of data communications transport across the public network," noted Roy Bynum, the chair of the IEEE 802.3 liaison ad hoc to the ITU, a voting member of relevant IEEE working groups, and recognized network architect. "IEEE, T1X1.5 and ITU all have initiatives to institute shared technologies that map application data and automatic protection."

With data traffic projected by industry analysts to constitute about 90% of all traffic on the public network by 2005, Appian's ODP is urgently needed to seamlessly evolve existing transport infrastructures, enabling them to carry and support both massive data traffic growth as well as legacy TDM voice applications from which service providers continue to derive the overwhelming majority of current revenues.

The `80s Infrastructure Evolves to Serve IP Traffic and Exponential Demand

The SONET transport protocol was architected 15+ years ago primarily for TDM voice traffic. SONET's resiliency and traffic security is achieved through bandwidth segregation. This segregation sharply limits the local loop's customer capacity for data traffic, because it assigns a transport path for each customer, preventing bandwidth sharing among multiple customers in existing SONET TDM-only access systems.

Appian's ODP is the first packet ring technology that provides comprehensive data protection at Layer 1. It achieves service separation while sharing bandwidth paths, eliminating the degraded ROI caused by dedicating individual bandwidth paths to each customer. ODP enables for the first time the full 100% utilization of bandwidth with individual, customer-specific classes-of-service.

ODP lets service providers smoothly and economically evolve their existing transport infrastructure to a shared bandwidth transport system that supports far greater traffic loads and customer counts on existing networks, and allows multiple data services to share a single protected optical path. ODP also enables the local loop's protection channel to be used for traffic, further incrementally increasing transport capacity. Because ODP allows existing legacy access networks to fully utilize all available bandwidth, simultaneously carry packet and circuit switched traffic, and stringently protect the privacy, performance and resiliency of individual customer services, it effectively evolves today's public network to serve tomorrow's exponentially growing traffic demands.

ODP is one of a series of patent-pending technologies developed by Appian, and is being integrated into its award-winning Optical Services Activation Platform (OSAP) 4800, which is currently being evaluated by multiple service providers.

About Appian Communications

Appian Communications, Inc. is a venture-backed optical networking startup formed to define the intelligent optical edge and enable new carrier services. Appian is developing an award-winning suite of intelligent and flexible products that solve the "sipping straw" access problem that separates businesses from cost-effective bandwidth capacity and service adaptability, and carriers from significant new revenues. Appian has been recognized at SUPERCOMM 2000's SUPERQuest Awards, was named a "Red Hot Startup" by America's Network, and was named one of Telecommunications Magazine's "Hot Startups to Watch in 2000."

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.