Data Connection Rounds Out its IP Routing Suite with RIP.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2004

Data Connection Limited (DCL), the world's leading provider of communications protocol software, today announced availability of its Routing Information Protocol product, DC-RIP. DC-RIP is the latest in Data Connection's acclaimed suite of IP Routing and MPLS software, and fulfils a strong market demand for a modern RIP implementation. DC-RIP has already been licensed by a number of equipment manufacturers.

DC-RIP is a fully portable, source code solution that implements full mandatory RIPv2 protocol support, as defined in RFC 2453, together with advanced features such as Split horizon with Poison Reverse, Triggered Updates and Authentication through plain text and MD5. It is designed for the most demanding applications, with exceptional reliability and scalability, including support for distribution and non-stop forwarding.

RIP is widely used in small enterprise networks, so RIP support is needed in both traditional enterprise devices and the new multi-service edge routers, which interface to these networks and provide managed VPN services that bridge between them. These new provider edge routers are highly scaled and often use redundant hardware and specialist operating systems. They therefore require software with features including efficient multi-instance virtual router support and true portability; features that are not readily available in other RIP implementations. DC-RIP has been specifically designed to meet these needs, although it is equally at home in enterprise devices.

"The remarkable success of our IS-IS, BGP, OSPF and VPN products has highlighted the need for a RIP solution with the same high levels of scalability and code quality," said Phil McConnell, CEO of Data Connection. "Through DC-RIP, we can now provide our customers with an integrated solution for all of their routing requirements."

DC-RIP fits into the same architectural framework as DCL's other IP Routing and MPLS protocol products (including DC-OSPF, DC-ISIS, DC-BGP, DC-MPLS and DC-VPN Manager), and is integrated with these products to provide a complete control plane solution for PE routers, or can be used on its own or with third-party products. In common with all Data Connection's protocol products, DC-RIP operates within Data Connection's unique "N-BASE" environment, which provides portability, scalability, and performance, at the very highest levels of resilience and availability as demanded by the leading carriers. The N-BASE has been proven in a wide range of networking devices for over 10 years.

DC-RIP has been developed according to Data Connection's highly rigorous processes, which greatly reduce the time to market and engineering effort required for customers building carrier-class network devices.

Further information on DC-RIP can be found at www.dataconnection.com/iprouting/.

About Data Connection

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

Data Connection is headquartered in London UK, with US offices in Alameda, CA, Dallas, TX and Reston, VA. It was founded in 1981 and is privately held. During each of the past 20 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue. Last year sales exceeded $40M, of which 90% were outside the UK, mostly in the US. This large proportion of overseas sales has led to the company being awarded two Queen's Awards for outstanding export performance.

For more information, see 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.