Equipe First to Show Multi-Vendor ATM/MPLS Interworking; Juniper Networks, Cisco, Lucent, Equipe Equipment Involved In Interworking Event.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2003

Equipe Communications Corporation announced today the successful trial and demonstration of its Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) to Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Network Interworking Function (IWF) for it's flagship product, the Equipe 3200 (E3200). This marks the first time that a vendor has successfully shown the non-disruptive migration of existing Frame Relay and ATM traffic onto a packet-based MPLS network in a mixed vendor environment. The demonstration was staged using equipment from Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) at an analyst event held at the company's headquarters recently.

"There is no question that the largest near-term market for new-generation networking equipment is the RBOCs' national data build-outs," said Tom Nolle, president, CIMI Corporation. "These represent a total of nearly ten billion dollars in aggregate equipment buys over the next five years. For regulatory and efficiency reasons, these networks will require the efficient linking of frame relay and ATM services and infrastructure with MPLS, and the only vendor I've seen offer a convincing demonstration of flow-through service creation and assurance between MPLS and ATM devices has been Equipe. There are a lot of vendors claiming to interwork ATM and MPLS, but only one that has demonstrated real end-to-end control, management, and data integration, and Equipe is that one."

Equipe's IWF capability on the E3200 allows carriers to translate data traffic from ATM cells to MPLS packets. This technology is a critical prerequisite to evolving carrier core networks to MPLS while growing revenue and market share in the frame relay and ATM data services markets. ILECs that can efficiently evolve their networks to support inter-LATA data services will have a distinct strategic business advantage over the next 10 years.

Equipe's IWF demonstration included a Juniper Networks M-Series Router, Cisco GSR and Lucent CBX 500 switches. The demo network showed that the E3200 allows Frame Relay and ATM circuits which originate and terminate on Lucent networks to transit an MPLS core network based on equipment from either Juniper Networks or Cisco, while fully preserving the existing operations and provisioning tools based on Lucent's Navis management platform.

The Equipe 3200 Multiservice Core Switch

The E3200 is a next generation ATM/MPLS multiservice core switch.

-- 200 Gbps of scalable capacity for today's ATM-based network infrastructures, at speeds from OC-3/STM-1 to OC-192/STM-64,

-- An operationally non-disruptive transition from ATM to MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching),

-- A new standard in high availability system architecture that addresses the most serious software, hardware and element management system stability issues facing service providers, and

-- Operations cost reduction and enhanced asset utilization through consolidation of core data networks and integration with emerging intelligent optical networks via GMPLS

About Equipe Communications

Equipe Communications(TM) is building the only true next-generation ATM/MPLS multiservice core switch specifically designed for large-scale service providers. It is the most cost effective, high availability solution for scaling layer 2 services, transitioning from ATM to MPLS, and driving reductions in operations costs through integration with intelligent optical networks. For more information, visit www.equipecom.com