MontaVista Software and Hughes Software Systems Enhance Availability of Telecom Software Components.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEW DELHI, India & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2003

HSS VoIP, Wireless and Wireline Protocol Stacks Now Validated on

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition

MontaVista Software, the company powering the embedded revolution, and Hughes Software Systems (HSS), specialists in software components and services for convergent networks, today strengthened their existing partnership by announcing the enhanced availability of the HSS suite of telecommunications protocol stacks on MontaVista(TM) Linux(R) Carrier Grade Edition (CGE).

Today, the two companies announced the immediate availability of HSS VoIP, Wireless, and Wireline protocol stacks now validated on MontaVista Carrier Grade Linux, including MAP, RANAP and GTP-C/U. Last year, HSS validated its SS7 and SIGTRAN protocol stacks on MontaVista Linux.

"The availability of HSS protocol stacks on MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition serves the needs of an increasing number of network equipment providers who are demanding carrier-grade, open-architecture components for next-generation infrastructure products," said Manoranjan Mohapatra, chief operating officer, Hughes Software Systems. "The off-the-shelf results of the MontaVista-HSS partnership drastically reduce development / support costs and time-to-market for our OEM customers."

MontaVista Linux CGE provides the scalability, dependability and functionality required by telecommunications and data communications applications such as soft switches, BSC/RNC (base station controllers/radio network controllers), media gateways, control plane applications in core/edge, media servers, and core switches. Carrier Grade Edition incorporates essential high availability features such as CompactPCI hot swap, redundant Ethernet and RAID1. CGE also delivers "hardened" driver and kernel architectures, resource monitoring and fault management services, and other carrier-grade capabilities.

HSS high-performance, highly available, interoperable and versatile protocol stack software enhances next-generation and traditional communications networks with Voice over Packet and high-speed mobile data capability. HSS offers a range of protocol stacks, including SIP, H.323, H.248, MGCP and MEGACO for enabling Voice over Packet network solutions, and B-SS7, ISDN, GPRS, UMTS, MAP, CAP, GTP, Gb and RANAP for 2.5G /3G mobile networks, as well as other standards-based communications protocol stacks.

"With more than a dozen significant design wins since it was released last year, MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition has resonated very strongly with customers in telecommunications and networking," said Glenn Seiler, director of product marketing, MontaVista Software. "MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition and the HSS comprehensive suite of protocol stacks offer network equipment providers a powerful way to develop products for a wide range of telecom markets on a standards-based, open architecture platform."

The HSS protocol stacks communicate with the underlying operating system and hardware via a common abstraction library. The validation of these protocol stacks on MontaVista Linux CGE ensures that HSS protocol stacks can be used to build any telecom system on MontaVista Linux platforms.

About MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 3.0 (CGE) advances the company's initial Carrier Grade Edition 2.1 product, providing a robust software platform to meet the demands of carriers and service providers. CGE is the first product to be fully compliant with the industry specifications for Carrier Grade Linux released last year by the Open Source Development Lab -- the OSDL Carrier Grade Linux Specification 1.1. The specification includes standards such as the Linux Standards Base (LSB), IPv6 (including IPSECv6 and MIPv6), SNMP support, and POSIX interfaces for timers, signals, message queues, semaphores, event logging, and threads. CGE is designed specifically to address the needs of telecommunications equipment manufacturers who face ever-increasing time-to-market pressures. These networking OEMs need to deliver scalable, high performance solutions with real-time support. CGE enables them to do so, and to lower their cost and time to deployment. CGE 3.0 enhances standard Linux with additional high reliability and availability features for deployment in carrier-grade environments, and delivers optimized support for telecommunications platforms from leading providers such as Force, IBM, Intel, Motorola and RadiSys.

About HSS Protocol Stacks

HSS widely deployed and platform-independent protocol stacks -- available as both source code and deployable binary -- reduce the time-to-market, cost, and program risk for telecom equipment manufacturers worldwide. HSS standards-complaint product lines and specialized customization / outsourcing services have helped over 200 telecom equipment manufacturers develop systems for their end customers. HSS offers the widest available range of data plane, control plane, and application plane protocol stacks required for building systems in the Voice over Packet, Wireless (2.5G and 3G), Wireline (SS7) and Broadband (B-SS7 and ATM) domains.

By acting as a global hub for protocol stack development and as a guarantor for multi-vendor interoperability, HSS avoids the duplication of investments across multiple firms and hence improves the efficiency of the telecom industry as a whole.

Availability

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 3.0 is available now from MontaVista Software and its worldwide distribution channels. It is offered as a product subscription, providing customers with the MontaVista Linux kernel, utilities, development tools, software updates, deployment components, comprehensive technical support, access to the MontaVista Zone and hands-on training. For more product information, please visit http://www.mvista.com/cge/index.html or email to [e-mail].

HSS provides the following Protocol Stacks on Linux:

VoIP: H.248, H.323, IUA, MGCP, M2PA, M2UA, M3UA, MicroSIP, SCTP, SIP, SUA

Wireless: BSSAP+, CAP, CC, FP, Gb (BSSGP, LLC, NS, SNDCP), GMM/SM, GSMS, GTP-C/U, GTP', INAP, Iu-CS, Iu-PS, Iub, Iur, LLC, MAP, MM, NBAP, PDCP, RABM, RLC/MAC, RNSAP, RRC, SNDCP, SS, USIL, Uu

SS7: ISUP, B-ISUP, MTP2, MTP3, MTP3-B, D-MTP3, SCCP, D-SCCP, TCAP

Broadband: ALCAP, IPoA, SSCF-NNI, SSCF-UNI, SSCOP, STC

Others: ISDN

All HSS protocol stacks are available in portable source code or binary form on a variety of hardware platforms, along with API documentation and user manuals. All HSS products are provided with warranty, upgrades and worldwide support. HSS SS7 and SIGTRAN protocol suites have been already made available to clients on MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 2.1. For more product information, please visit http://www.hssworld.com or email to [e-mail]

About MontaVista Software

MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software for intelligent connected devices and associated infrastructure. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing GNU/Linux-based open-source software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista offers a family of products under the MontaVista Linux umbrella that address broad-based software developer needs encompassing applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. Multiple Editions of MontaVista Linux are available including Professional, Consumer Electronics and Carrier Grade, along with complementary technology products providing powerful Java and graphics development capabilities.

Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Sony, Panasonic (Matsushita), Toshiba America and Yamaha Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com.

About Hughes Software Systems (HSS)

Hughes Software Systems Ltd. (HSS), specialists in convergent network software and India' s leading communications software company, offers a broad range of communications-related software services, products, and solutions to leading communication OEMs around the world. HSS technology focus is in the convergence market with products and services in Next Generation Networks, and High Speed Mobile Data. Assessed at SEI-CMM Level 4 for all its development centers and all projects, HSS been an ISO 9001 company since 1996. HSS is a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation. HSS U.S. headquarters are located in Germantown, MD.

Ranked among the five best companies to work for in India, by Hewitt Associates, HSS has a team of over 1500 world class professionals, at its development centers in India: at Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi and in Bangalore. With sales and support offices in the US, the UK, Germany and Finland, it is represented throughout Europe, South America, and Asia to support its global customer base. Find out more on www.hssworld.com.

Note to Editors: Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a trademark of MontaVista Software Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.