Astral Point Delivers Highly Tuned Solution For New Metro Optical Network.

Business/Technology Editors

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2000

ON 2000 node and Galaxy Distributed Control Plane

simplify network operations, reduce network costs and

meet demands of The New Metro Optical Network

Astral Point Communications, Inc. today expanded its portfolio of products designed to support the demands of next-generation metropolitan optical networks. Astral Point products deliver a range of low-speed to light-speed services combining the intelligence and switching capability of a data network with the reliability and protection performance of SONET.

Astral Point develops metropolitan optical network solutions for broadband access and optical transport services, while allowing service providers to maintain their revenue streams from traditional T1/DS3 private line services. The product family incorporates a number of features that further reduce the capital and operational costs associated with maintaining a next-generation metro network. By utilizing OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) routing protocol and MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technology in its new Galaxy Distributed Control Plane (DCP)(TM) software announced today, Astral Point has developed a solution that enables service providers to evolve from simple high-speed data transport to carrier-class IP services. This combination enables service providers to provide IP data services with a full range of QoS options, while maintaining the SONET-quality protection that their end customers have come to expect.

The New Metro Optical Network

Metropolitan networks initially provided voice and data transport for long-distance telephone and access to long-distance data networks. Most metro traffic was "backhauled" from the metro area to an Inter-Exchange Point of Presence. Today, the explosive growth of Internet, Ethernet, LANs and broadband services traffic has altered that flow, with increasing amounts of bandwidth now originating and remaining in the metro network. New content delivery providers, web hosting facilities, storage area networks and application service providers are pushing even more bandwidth back into the metro and closer to the end user. According to Vertical Systems Group, a Dedham, MA telecommunications consulting firm, the 80/20 rule has been reversed: approximately 80 percent of new services now terminate on Service Points-of-Presence within the metro network, with only 20 percent passed through to the long-haul. This ratio flip has created enormous metropolitan market demand.

"These new traffic patterns sharply alter carrier equipment requirements. There is escalating demand for traffic-engineered service delivery solutions that support unsurpassed quality of service guarantees. Providers want multi-service networks that can be adapted rapidly and managed easily to meet the needs for broadband service access including T1, Ethernet and DSLAM network scaling. Astral Point is the first vendor to address the fundamental shift within the metropolitan network and the first to deliver a highly tuned solution. With today's announcement, Astral Point has taken the lead in serving this new market," Raj Shanmugaraj, founder, president and chief executive officer of Astral Point, stated.

"The metro network has become a high-growth market. Metro network service providers believe they will be able to amalgamate their networks into regional topologies that are increasingly more efficient. They want predictable deployment, continuously improved costs and margins, fewer suppliers capable of supporting more applications and bandwidth, and assured fulfillment of service level agreements. These circumstances require a new perspective on how users, providers, suppliers and analysts view this effervescent sector," Rick Malone, president of Vertical Systems Group, stated.

Solutions Address Key Issues For Service Providers

Astral Point's solutions for emerging metropolitan networks address key requirements of service providers today - better cost, service delivery and network management.

For example, in the new ON 2000 Optical Access Node announced today, Astral Point combines the functionality of a distributed digital cross-connect, an Ethernet switch and an optical ADM into a single multi-service platform. The low-cost, small-footprint node can aggregate DSL traffic, deliver Ethernet services and transport high-speed optical wavelengths while maximizing revenue-generating T1/T3 tariffed voice services. Astral Point believes that by integrating distributed digital cross-connect, an Ethernet switch and an optical ADM in one platform, carriers can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in initial capital equipment costs per metro network.

Additional significant savings in network management and operations costs are made possible by the company's new Galaxy DCP software. The software automatically integrates every Astral Point node in a network into a single virtual network element that leverages Astral Point's distributed switching architecture. Galaxy DCP utilizes the Internet standards of OSPF routing protocol and MPLS-ready signaling to perform auto-discovery and "one touch" provisioning functions. Galaxy DCP can dramatically reduce optical network provisioning overhead, while enabling service providers to provision new circuits in minutes rather than weeks - enabling them to "turn on" new customers quickly to realize additional revenue opportunities.

Another benefit available under Galaxy Distributed Control Plane is its variety of powerful protection techniques. These protection solutions can cut fiber capacity requirements by half, support non-fiber back-up paths and enable full-time utilization of all bandwidth resources, any of which can be immediately pre-empted to protect against service interruptions.

Millions of dollars per year in cost savings are possible with these new capabilities. For example, traditional SONET technology mandates a dedicated fiber or wavelength as a protection path; thus, 50 percent of each SONET ring's bandwidth is reserved for protection and cannot be used to provide revenue-generating services. Under Astral Point protection techniques, a carrier can use low-cost leased-lines as a replacement for back-up fiber cables, saving up to $20,000 per mile per month in fiber cable cost. Eliminating costly and difficult back-up fiber cable installations also speeds up deployment and time-to-revenue cycles.

Astral Point is uniquely positioned as the "first mover" in the emerging metropolitan optical network. This year, Astral Point was the first metro vendor to announce an integrated 3:1:0 digital cross connect, the first to provide an integrated DWDM solution, the first to ship a metro optical product and the first to announce contracts with major metro players such as Time Warner Telecom (NASDAQ: TWTC) and Advanced Telcom Group.

About Astral Point

Privately held Astral Point Communications, Inc., of Chelmsford, MA, is pioneering the development of optical networking equipment to manage bandwidth for new types of services in metropolitan, regional and other optical access markets. Its patent-pending Self-Healing Mesh algorithm enables SONET-quality protection and restoration capabilities in a flexible mesh network topology that maximizes efficient use of optical power, simplifies service upgrades and optimizes use of the optical infrastructure. Its ONset Optical Network Management System (ONMS) enables service providers to add hundreds of circuits in minutes from a single console. ONset also provides centralized management of circuit aggregation, grooming, LAN interconnection, banding and transport functions. Additional information about these capabilities can be found on the Astral Point web site at www.astralpoint.com.