Metrobility Targets End-to-End Management of Metro Ethernet Services with New GigE Offering; Solution touts migration path for emerging Ethernet standards.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MERRIMACK, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2004

Metrobility Optical Systems, a next-generation optical networking company providing Metro Ethernet connectivity, access, wavelength multiplexing and management solutions, today introduced a new model for its Radiance Optical Ethernet System family. The E-Services Network Interface Device (NID) gives service providers important operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) capabilities including remote management and troubleshooting features that are critical to the delivery of secure, private and managed Metro Ethernet services. The E-Services NID adheres to the IEEE 802.3ah draft standard for Ethernet in the First Mile and conforms to the Metro Ethernet Forum's Services Model for E-Line or point-to-point services.

Metrobility's E-Services NID enables service providers to utilize existing Ethernet switches and routers at the customer site to offer new, revenue-generating Metro Ethernet services without significant capital and operational expenditures. Providing a secure, managed demarcation point between service provider and business customer networks, the E-Services NID minimizes the need for expensive truck rolls or loss of revenue due to service disruptions. As a result, carriers can see dramatic reductions in the cost of provisioning and higher revenue streams from bandwidth-intensive applications. Carriers can also better manage Metro Ethernet service level agreements and performance guarantees. Metrobility's E-Services NID offers flexible management and optical interface options to accommodate future requirements as the network evolves and industry standards are ratified. Embedded software in the E-Services NID is field-upgradeable to ensure service providers a seamless migration to Ethernet standards-based OAM while supporting SNMP-based management.

Industry research firm Infonetics Research predicts annual worldwide metro Ethernet equipment revenue to grow by 150 percent to $7.5 billion by 2007, due to growing corporate demand and service provider plans to simplify their metro networks over time to a model of Ethernet/IP over optical. "Although Ethernet is emerging as a strategic metro access technology, there are still non-trivial technical challenges in providing carrier-class OAM capabilities for Ethernet services," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics. "Metrobility's E-Services NID provides a useful demarcation point between carrier and customer networks, allowing for flexibility in service offerings, including quality of service. The NID can be a key network building block as carriers look to increase their revenues with Metro Ethernet."

The Gigabit E-Services NID represents an innovation in optical access and connectivity by addressing the need for comprehensive OAM features in the first mile. Metrobility has been delivering a set of advanced remote management and troubleshooting features for 100Mbps Ethernet services for the past two years.

"Our new E-Services NID is designed for maximum isolation between the private and the public network. Service providers can now manage Ethernet services in the first mile from a central office without any disruptions in their customers' service. This is critical as business users demand Metro Ethernet services with a high quality of service measured through carrier-class service level agreements," said Alex Saunders, president and CEO of Metrobility.

Services Line Card Features and Availability

As the CPE demarcation point, the E-Services NID supports advanced, VLAN-aware bridging and provides flexible MEF-compliant E-Line services. The E-Services NID monitors the health and status of devices and network connections to enable the highest level of manageability, including remote optical link loopback testing, integral optical power monitoring, IEEE 802-compliant and RMON Group 1 statistics to determine quality of line, errored symbol and frame events, and real-time analog information for equipment power and temperature that provide "dying gasp" capabilities. Extending 802.3ah OAM features with value-added extensions for provisioning, the solution scales easily for a large metro access service deployment by eliminating the need for an IP address at each customer site. Intelligent management access controls make the device impervious to denial of service attacks under all traffic conditions and traffic patterns.

The E-Services NID is comprised of an R851-1S or R851-SS Gigabit Ethernet Services Line Card mounted in a Radiance R5000, R1000, R400 or R200 chassis. The Services Line Card supports copper-to-fiber (R851-1S) or fiber-to-fiber (R851-SS) connectivity with 10/100/1000Mbps autonegotiation on the copper port. Fiber optic connectivity flexibility is provided through the use of small form-factor pluggable (SFP) optics. Singlemode fiber connectivity can extend network distances up to 100km.

In addition, the small form-factor pluggable optics enable service providers to utilize ITU Grid CWDM wavelengths to increase fiber capacity up to 16Gbps on a single fiber pair. SFP optics enable service providers to change optics on-the-fly for significant time savings with no effect on existing services.

The R851-1S list price is $1399, and R851-SS list price is $1499. SFP optics range in price from $229 to $2299 dependent on fiber types, power, and distance required. The E-Services NID is available 90 days after receipt of order. Standalone chassis with power range in price from $229.00-$249.00.

About Metrobility Optical Systems

Metrobility Optical Systems is an innovative, next generation optical networking company focusing on delivering optical access, connectivity and multiplexing to create a more efficient, more reliable, and more manageable network infrastructure. Metrobility harnesses the power of Ethernet and fiber optics to deliver superior carrier-class network connectivity solutions to bring WAN-manageable capabilities - optical remote management, connectivity, and access - to the metropolitan area network. As a market leader in media conversion, Metrobility has over a million units installed in networks around the world and is the product of choice for network builders who need to maximize network uptime and ensure network availability.

Metrobility Optical Systems is an ISO 9001:2000 registered company based in Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA. More information on Metrobility Optical Systems can be found at www.metrobility.com.

Lancast, Metrobility, Metrobility Optical Systems, and NetBeacon are registered trademarks of Metrobility Optical Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.