Cascade Reaffirms Frame Relay Leadership Position With Priority Frame; Industry's First Quality of Service Technology For Frame Relay.

WESTFORD, Mass--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 1997--

Creates New Revenue Opportunities For Network Service

Providers

Cascade Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: CSCC) today announced Priority Frame, a breakthrough software technology that adds Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees to Frame Relay. Priority Frame allows network service providers to leverage their existing Frame Relay infrastructure and cost-effectively expand their service portfolio with new classes of service. Network service providers can now offer their customers services that are tailored to a broad range of applications with different network delivery requirements.

With this expansion of service offerings, network service providers can target new customers with delay-sensitive applications which require service level guarantees, and they can offer premium services to existing customers -- all using existing equipment. These service level guarantees support delay-sensitive applications including SNA, packetized voice, and packetized video. The introduction of Priority Frame reaffirms the Cascade Frame Relay leadership position as the first-to-market with an innovative technology that translates into significant benefits for both network service providers and their customers.

"Frame Relay users are demanding service level agreements that guarantee the bandwidth, delay and frame loss through the network. Priority Frame allows network service providers to meet these demands," said Paul DeBeasi, Frame Relay Business Manager at Cascade Communications Corp. "Priority Frame will accelerate the expansion of the Frame Relay market by enabling new applications to make use of cost-effective and widely-deployed Frame Relay services."

The Simplicity Of Frame Relay With ATM-like QoS Features

Priority Frame creates four new Frame Relay service classes that provide a wide portfolio of service offerings with varying levels of committed bandwidth, delay and frame loss. The service classes, their characteristics and their service offerings are detailed below:

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Service Class          Characteristics      Advanced Frame and Internet
                                            Services


Constant Frame Rate    Committed Bandwidth  Video Conferencing
(CFR)                  Low Delay            Distance Learning
Low Frame Loss


Real Time Variable     Committed Bandwidth  SNA
Frame Rate (rtVFR)     Moderate Delay       Packetized Voice
Low Frame Loss                              Packetized Video


Non-Real Time          Committed Bandwidth  LAN-to-LAN
Variable
Frame Rate (nrtVFR)    Higher Delay         Business-class
Low Frame Loss                              Internet/Intranet Access


Available/Unspecified  Available Bandwidth  Email
Frame Rate                                  FileTransfer
(AFR/UFR)                                   Residential Internet Access

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"Priority Frame gives us an inexpensive, efficient way to create different classes of service that allow all types of network traffic -- SNA, LAN, voice -- to travel smoothly over the same Frame Relay pipeline without impacting each other," said Greg Tennant, Director of Marketing and Product Management, Data Services, at Intermedia Communications (ICI). "Because of this innovation in the Cascade switches, ICI can now extend its existing QoS guarantees to support application specific traffic, providing tangible benefits to our customers."

SNA Migration: Early Adopters To Mainstream Migration Although Systems Network Architecture (SNA) has long been touted as an ideal application for Frame Relay, there has been no way to reliably guarantee service performance and therefore entice the majority of mainstream SNA users to migrate to Frame Relay. With Priority Frame, network service providers can efficiently deliver a premium service with the delay characteristics and performance required for SNA transport. Users can confidently move these applications from less efficient, less flexible and more expensive leased-line services to Frame Relay. It's been estimated that less than 20% of the SNA installed base of one million ports has migrated to Frame Relay, leaving a large market opportunity for converting SNA users to public Frame Relay.

"Priority Frame is a breakthrough technology," said Rick Malone, Principal of Vertical Systems Group, Dedham, MA. "It overcomes Frame Relay's delay-prone, variable-length Frame architecture to transform this transport into a very viable solution for SNA and voice applications."

Business Internet and Intranet Services

Priority Frame, along with the recently announced IP Navigator, allows network service providers to offer business Internet and Intranet services to their corporate customers. As business use of the Internet accelerates, companies want improved services for their Internet and Intranet applications. With Priority Frame, corporate sites can select premium IP services to guarantee high priority access to the Internet or to their corporate Intranet. Residential customers using the Internet for simple e-mail and file transfer can select less expensive services to satisfy these less demanding requirements.

End-to-End QoS

Priority Frame technology migrates ATM-like QoS to Frame Relay, supporting end-to-end WAN service level agreements. Network service providers can now extend QoS guarantees using Frame Relay and ATM technology. With Priority Frame, Cascade is the only vendor who can offer full class of service guarantees across hybrid Frame Relay and ATM networks.

Priority Frame software will be available in mid-1997 as part of the B-STDX 8000 and 9000 system software at no additional charge.

About Cascade Communications Corp.

Cascade Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: CSCC) is at the forefront of broadband data communications with its family of scalable, carrier-class Frame Relay, IP, ATM and Remote Access switching products. Used by public carriers and Internet service providers worldwide, Cascade products are forming the foundation of the public network infrastructure for global communications. Cascade is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, USA, with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia/Pacific. For more information about Cascade and its products, please visit the Company's web site at http://www.casc.com .

Priority Frame and IP Navigator are trademarks of Cascade Communications Co.

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Cascade Communications Corp.

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Cascade Communications Corp.

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