Circadiant To Drive Optical Conformance Testing at UNH-IOL.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2003

ALLENTOWN, Pa. & DURHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2003

Optical Standards Tester Will Help Move Industry towards

Multi-Vendor Interoperability at University of New Hampshire Group

Test Period

Circadiant Systems, the company making optical testing simple, today announced its award-winning Optical Standards Tester will again be used at the next UNH-IOL Group Test Period to make 10GE Stressed Receiver Conformance Tests.

The next 10GE Consortium is scheduled for May 5 - 9, 2003. The Stressed Receiver Conformance Test is an important part of the IEEE 802.3ae specification and helps ensure 10GE vendor's products interoperate.

In May, UNH-IOL 10GE Consortium members will investigate interoperability issues and assess their ability to properly participate in a multi-vendor 10GE network. In addition to Stressed Receiver Conformance Testing, 10GE Consortium members will employ a host of Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3 test equipment to characterize component and system performance. Direct connections between Consortium member's systems will be made. As a matter of standard policy, test results will be kept confidential to each company.

"The 10GE standard was just passed last year and as companies develop 10GE products, they can bring them here for interoperability testing," said Bob Noseworthy, 10GE Consortium Manager. "These Group Test Periods are a great resource for the industry. UNH-IOL has played a major role in Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet interoperability. Now we are bringing 10GE companies together through the 10GE Consortium to help achieve true 10GE interoperability. All companies are invited to join."

The Circadiant OST was used at the UNH-IOL January Group Test Period to check compliance of components and systems to the 10GE Stressed Receiver Conformance Test specification. "We verified at the last Group Test Period that systems need to be tested to the Stressed Receiver Conformance Test," said Noseworthy. "Inadequate airflow around the optics in a system can significantly degrade the system's stressed receiver conformance test results. One may not rely only on the component vendors for 10GE system level compliance assurance."

Additional tests made by the Circadiant OST include receiver sensitivity, optical overload, BER vs. OSNR, and a variety of Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocol tests with different amounts of optical degradation present. "While these tests are typically very difficult to make, the participants involved in the group test period were quickly performing these complex tasks using the OST," said John French, CEO of Circadiant Systems.

About OSTs

OSTs are an important new class of test instrumentation. They have received numerous awards as innovative test instruments that reduce manufacturing test cycle times and shorten a new product's time-to-market. Layer 1, 2 and 3 instruments and components commonly used to test optical communication systems are consolidated into an OST.

This enables sophisticated algorithms and complex testing procedures to be calibrated and automated by the factory, instead of the user, and produces a test instrument that is fast, accurate and purpose-built for optical communication system testing.

Individual and group test results are displayed on appropriate scales with statistical confidence levels clearly shown to help users understand the behavior of a Device Under Test.

An OST also allows the user to degrade test signals to simulate worst-case test conditions. Degradation includes control over jitter, OSNR, interfering source, extinction ratio and optical power as well as the ability to inject errors into the layer 2 and 3 protocol signals.

About Circadiant Systems, Inc.

Founded and staffed by a team of distinguished engineers with extensive experience in optical components, networks, protocols and testing and a rich pedigree at Bell Labs, Circadiant is a privately held venture-funded company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The company provides optical component and network equipment makers with award-winning, purpose-built, intelligent testing systems that significantly reduce development and manufacturing costs while accelerating the time-to-market of high-quality optical networking solutions.

To that end, Circadiant has introduced a new class of testing equipment that offers standardization, automation and scalability in a system purpose-built to meet the needs of the current and future optical networking

market and is well positioned to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar optical testing industry. For more information visit http://www.circadiant.com .

About the UNH-IOL's 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium (10GEC)

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium fosters interoperability among 10 Gigabit Ethernet products and technologies. The consortium's staff and engineering students provide high quality, reliable, and accurate interoperability and standards-based testing of 10 Gigabit Ethernet products in a non-biased environment.

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium is one of 15 Consortiums housed in the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Laboratory, located in Durham, New Hampshire. More than 200 companies worldwide are members of the UNH InterOperability Laboratory. For more information, visit the UNH InterOperability Laboratory at http://www.iol.unh.edu/consortiums/10gec .