Foundry Networks Introduces Major BGP and Security Enhancements to Its Internet Router.

Business Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2000

New IronWare Software Release 7.0 Boosts Routing Control

Intelligence, Network Security, Scalability and Manageability

Foundry Networks(TM), Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY), a leader in next generation high performance end-to-end switching and routing solutions, today announced the immediate availability of its IronWare(TM) Internet routing software release 7.0. This feature rich software release is available for Foundry's high performance NetIron(TM)400, NetIron800 and NetIron1500 Internet backbone routers. Additionally, this software suite is available for Foundry's BigIron(TM) Layer 3 switching family -- BigIron 4000, 8000 and 15000.

      The new IronWare release 7.0 introduces extensive routing,
security and network monitoring enhancements including:

      --  BGP4 enhancements including dynamic scalability to very large
        (over 2 million routes and 150 peers) BGP4 networks

      --  BGP4 peer group definitions to simplify configuration in large
        BGP4 peering environments and make router management more
        efficient and scalable

      --  Extensive BGP4 protocol monitoring enhancements

      --  Secured Shell (SSH) for secured and encrypted device access

      --  Wire-speed access control list (ACL) enhancements

      --  Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

      --  Support for up to 12 trunk groups on high density 10/100
        Ethernet modules

      --  Flexible static IP route handling enabling static route
        alternatives

With these BGP4 enhancements, combined with existing routing capabilities such as BGP4 Route Reflector, AS Confederation and Route Flap Dampening, Foundry now has one of the most feature rich and robust Internet routing software suites in the industry.

"We continue to broaden our product features and markets with our extensible routing architecture and customer focus by introducing product enhancements to meet new customer requirements," said Bobby Johnson, president and CEO for Foundry Networks. "This set of new routing and security features will enable our customers to build very large and highly available routing environments to meet their service objectives," continued Johnson.

BGP4 Scalability Enhancements to Support Very Large BGP4 Networks

IronWare release 7.0 includes significant enhancements to the BGP4 implementation enabling it to scale to support very large BGP4 networks -- over 2 million routes and 150 peers. Foundry has done extensive field-testing to confirm system and network stability in these large environments.

BGP4 Peer Groups and Other Enhancements

IronWare release 7.0 expands Foundry's robust BGP4 implementation by adding the capability to group a set of configuration statements together into a peer group. A peer group can be applied at one time to the BGP4 peers that share common configuration attributes. This feature simplifies BGP4 neighbor configuration significantly in complex BGP4 peering environments. It also reduces flash memory consumption by consolidating peer configuration statements.

IronWare release 7.0 also increases the current BGP4 monitoring capabilities by allowing customers to monitor the running configuration, route map, advertised routes, received routes and existing routes in the route information base (RIB) for neighbors.

Secured Shell (SSH)

SSH is a standard mechanism for allowing secure remote access to a network device. With IronWare release 7.0, Foundry has embedded SSH free of charge in its products to enable security-conscious customers to allow only secure, encrypted access to the Foundry devices.

Access Control List (ACL) Enhancements

With IronWare release 7.0, Foundry continues to evolve its unique wire-speed ACL functionality to provide greater flexibility. In this new release, customers are able to configure Foundry devices to filter all TCP packets according to the defined access policies, instead of just the TCP control packets. This capability will enable more effective defense against certain denial of service attacks.

In addition, IronWare release 7.0 will support application of access policies to a user-specified subset of ports within a VLAN. This will allow customers to streamline performance of the VLAN.

Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

Policy-Based Routing (PBR) allows customers to define routing policies based on the source address of the traffic and route incoming traffic according to these policies. This is done instead of the traditional destination based forwarding mechanism. With PBR, customers now have the flexibility to handle traffic by specifying the next hop gateway or the default next hop IP address, or drop the packet if the destination is not reachable. Using PBR, service providers can forward traffic from subscribers of different ISPs correctly to the appropriate ISP networks, based on the subscribers' source IP addresses.

Flexible Static IP Route Handling

IronWare release 7.0 provides greater flexibility for using IP static routes. With this feature, customers can configure a standard static route, an interface-based static route or a backup route to the same destination. This enhancement allows customers to define a traffic handling policy when the destination network is not available from the primary or default route.

Support Up To 12 Trunk Groups on High Density 10/100 Ethernet Modules

IronWare release 7.0 now allows up to 12 trunk groups to be defined on a single 24-port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switch module. This capability allows customers the flexibility to group multiple 10/100 ports into trunks for increased link bandwidth and link redundancy.

"We have deployed Foundry's BGP4 routers and we are very pleased with their robustness and scalability," said Dave Moore, vice president of product development for AvantGo Inc, a mobile Internet company. "Foundry has been able to deliver new BGP4 functionalities on a regular basis and the new BGP4 peer group feature has helped us to reduce management and configuration complexity," continued Moore.

In keeping with the Foundry tradition of continuing to add value to its products without additional charge, IronWare release 7.0 will be available for download free of charge to all Foundry customers with support contracts.

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a leader in high performance, end-to-end switching and routing solutions including Internet routers, Layer 3 switches and Layer 4-7 Internet traffic and content management switches. Foundry products are installed in the world's largest ISPs including AOL (NYSE: AOL), EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), AT&T WorldNet, MSN, and Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP). Foundry products are also installed in large enterprise, entertainment, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as search engines, e-commerce sites, universities and government organizations. Some of these customers include: The University of Washington, LucasFilm, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), LTV Steel (NYSE: LTV), Incyte Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INCY), U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy, NASA and NIH. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBO.LAN or visit our web site at www.foundrynetworks.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding future products and the anticipated ability for customers to build routing environments to meet their service objectives. The results expected by these statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the potential for delays in research and development of planned products, continued and increasing demand for Internet infrastructure equipment, Foundry's ability to introduce new and superior products and predict future industry standards, the quality of new products offered by Foundry's competitors in the intensely competitive networking market, and Foundry's reliance on limited sources for key components and third-party manufacturing vendors which may impact its ability to fill customer orders and develop planned products. Actual results may differ materially due to these and other factors. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Foundry's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see the Risk Factors described in Foundry's final Prospectus dated September 27, 1999 for its initial public offering as well as its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Foundry Networks, IronWare, BigIron and NetIron are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.