Atrica's Carrier Ethernet Systems Among the First to Receive MEF 14 Certification.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Certification Ensures Conformance to the MEF Quality of Service Attributes, Which Are Crucial for SLAs Supporting Simultaneous Real-Time and Data Intensive Business Applications

Atrica, the Carrier Ethernet Company(TM), today announced that its Carrier Ethernet Systems have received certification for compliance with Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) technical specification 14 for all three services defined by the MEF, including Ethernet Private Line (EPL) Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) and Ethernet LAN (ELAN). The Atrica A-2100, A-2140, and A-2160 Carrier Ethernet Edge Switches, the A-4100 Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Switch and the A-8100 Carrier Ethernet Core Switch were tested by the Iometrix test laboratory and have been certified to comply with the requirements established in the MEF 14 Abstract Test Suite for Traffic Management Phase 1.

This certification ensures that Atrica's Carrier Ethernet Systems conform to the MEF Quality of Service attributes, which are required for service level agreements (SLAs) supporting simultaneous real-time and data intensive business applications. The certification followed two months of exhaustive testing, with no less then 183 test cases covering EPL, EVPL and E-LAN services and engaging complex policing algorithms applied to the User Network Interface (UNI), the Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVC) and Classes of Service within the EVC.

Designed to help make Ethernet truly carrier class, MEF 14 provides clear specifications-based guidelines for the formulation of SLAs. MEF 14 complements MEF 9 and covers two sets of MEF Service Attributes, namely "Service Performance" and "Bandwidth Profiles." The first set comprises three Service Performance attributes relating to the EVCs: Frame delay, Frame delay variation and frame loss ratio. The second set, relating to the UNI and following the familiar example of Frame Relay, include four Bandwidth Profile attributes: CIR (Committed Information Rate), CBS (Committed Burst Size), EIR (Excess Information Rate), EBS (Excess Burst Size). Together MEF 9 and MEF 14 cover the complete set of Carrier Ethernet Service Attributes defined in the core definitional technical document MEF 10.

"We are proud that our Carrier Ethernet Systems are among the first to receive this important certification, as it underscores the pioneering role Atrica has in the advancement of the Carrier Ethernet market," said Scott Messenger, vice president of marketing for Atrica. "With the growth of IPTV and other high-bandwidth, delay-sensitive services, it is crucial that Carrier Ethernet be able to deliver high QoS and strict SLAs. This certification gives our customers additional confidence in our ability to fulfill their stringent service requirements. Additionally, Atrica is firmly committed to the standards process. By pursuing this certification, we are working with other vendors to achieve true interoperability for Carrier Ethernet equipment, which will greatly benefit both the providers and the users of Carrier Ethernet services."

About The Metro Ethernet Forum:

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) is a global industry alliance comprising more than 80 organizations including telecommunications service providers, network equipment/software manufacturers, semiconductors vendors and testing organizations. The MEF's mission is to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. The MEF develops Carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide. For more information about the Forum, including a complete listing of all current MEF members, please visit the MEF web site at www.MetroEthernetForum.org

About Atrica

A technology visionary and industry pioneer, Atrica provides a full range of Carrier Ethernet transport solutions to service providers delivering Metro Ethernet services. Atrica's Carrier Ethernet product suite combines the benefits of Ethernet technology -- including its low-cost, proven scalability, ease of management, and ubiquity in the enterprise market -- with innovations in traffic engineering, service management and scalability to meet the stringent demands of next-generation transport networks. With Atrica's Carrier Ethernet solutions, service providers can deliver the ultimate broadband triple play services experience to their business and residential customers over a single universal transport network, with guaranteed SLAs, sub-50ms network-wide resiliency, TDM traffic support, and point-and-click, centralized OAM&P. Privately held, Atrica has received funding from world-class venture capital firms, industry leaders, and eight global service providers. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Atrica has R&D facilities in Israel and the Untied States and business development and sales offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit Atrica on the Web at www.atrica.com.

Atrica, ASPEN and The Carrier Ethernet Company are registered trademarks and trademarks of Atrica Inc. or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.