Data Connection Publishes White Paper on ASON and GMPLS - The Battle of the Optical Control Plane.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 2002

Paper compares and contrasts the activity from the ITU-ASON and the

IETF-GMPLS work groups that are defining the latest standards for

the optical control plane

Data Connection Limited (DCL) today announced publication of a White Paper providing a comparison of the optical plane standards that are being developed simultaneously by both ITU-ASON and the IETF-GMPLS work groups.

This is an analytical and non-political overview of the widely differing perspectives from vendors and service providers. The White Paper builds on DCL's extensive optical control plane implementation experience gained from developing solutions for many of the leading optical vendors and provides an unbiased examination of the current activity.

In the White Paper, topics include:

-- Origins of GMPLS and ASON

-- Differences in Methodology

-- ASON versus GMPLS Business Model

-- "GMPLS Everywhere" versus ASON Reference Points

-- Differences in Layered Implementation

-- Routing Hierarchy

"The completeness and the timing of the work from the ITU-ASON and IETF-GMPLS committees have a crucial impact on both service providers and the manufacturers that are developing the solutions for optical routing," said Ben Miller, DCL's VP sales and marketing for protocol software business. "This paper discusses their interactions, and the challenges that these groups need to overcome in order for the industry to end up with an effective set of standards that can be implemented."

The White Paper can be downloaded free from http://www.dataconnection.com/mpls#whitepapers. Also, those attending Opticon in San Jose, CA this week can pick up a copy of this White Paper at Data Connection's booth.

About DC-MPLS and DC-IP Routing Protocols

DCL produced the first-to-market portable implementations of Generalized MPLS (GMPLS), the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) User to Network Interface (UNI) and Link Management Protocol (LMP), an associated optical networking management protocol.

DCL provides a complete range of MPLS and IP routing software for optical and packet applications. For the optical control plane, this includes GMPLS, UNI, OSPF-TE, ISIS-TE, CSPF, LMP and support for functions such as network level protection and restoration.

DC-MPLS, DC-OSPF and DC-ISIS are fully portable carrier-class implementations that set the industry standard for performance, scalability and robustness. All are provided on the N-BASE architecture that is easily extensible, provides full MIB support and enables fault tolerant and distributed hardware configurations.

For packet applications, DC-MPLS and DC-IP Routing includes support for RSVP-TE, LDP, CR-LDP, OSPF-TE, ISIS-TE and BGP.

Data Connection is heavily involved in the MPLS standardization process and provides market education through highly regarded white papers available on its website. Topics include a comparison of RSVP-TE and CR-LDP signaling protocols, Protection and Restoration in MPLS networks, VPNs, MPLS in Optical Networks and now a comparison of optical control plane standardization activity.

About Data Connection Limited

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of IP Routing, LMP, MPLS, SIP, MGCP/Megaco, SCTP, ATM, Conferencing, Unified Messaging, Directory and SNA portable products. Customers include Calient, CIENA, Cisco, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM Corp., Lucent, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Sycamore, and Sun.

Its MetaSwitch division develops and manufactures a carrier-class, next-generation Class 5 switch for telecommunications service providers. Data Connection is headquartered in London UK, with US offices in Reston, VA and Alameda, CA.

It was founded in 1981 and is privately held. During each of the past 19 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue. Last year sales exceeded $35M, of which 90% were outside the UK, mostly in the US, leading to the company's second Queen's Award for outstanding export performance.

For information, contact Ben Miller by email at [e-mail], call us at [phone], or visit our Web site at www.dataconnection.com.

Data Connection is a trademark of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.