NetScout Throws Weight at Assuring Performance of IP Services.

nGenius Solution Gives Service Providers the Deep Visibility They Need to Accelerate MTTR and Reduce Churn

WESTFORD, Mass. & DALLAS -- NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a leading partner to the Global 2000 in deploying and protecting IP-based networks and applications for over two decades, today announced from the TeleManagement World Americas show floor that its nGenius[R] Performance Management Solution is now available for deployment in revenue-generating, customer-facing, service provider networks. Over the past two years, NetScout's rich, carrier-grade performance monitoring solutions have found a growing audience among operators as a powerful means for achieving clear visibility into IP traffic from the network, service, and customer perspectives. This valuable operational intelligence enables providers to accurately plan for capacity expansion and reduce Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) by rapidly troubleshooting IP service degradations.

Originally built to support the world's largest private and government networks, NetScout architected the nGenius Solution to deliver high-definition visibility with high reliability. The nGenius Solution offers providers:

* Distributed architecture which can support tens of thousands of measurement points.

* High capacity, real-time, network-facing direct instrumentation which can handle 10Gbit Ethernet and OC-48 speeds today.

* Highly efficient workflow that allows operators to move quickly and easily from KPIs (key performance indicators) to flow data to packet details as needed.

* Unified support for direct instrumentation, flow records, and SNMP-based performance data.

* Open interfaces for integration with other operations products.

* Easily configurable reports for delivering intelligence on broad performance indicators at the network level, service level, or customer level.

* Standby fail-over configurations for assuring operational continuity.

NetScout expects these capabilities to be of particular interest to service providers that are transitioning towards IMS as a means of embracing service convergence and offering reliable IP-based service bundles such as Triple Play.

"There is an important gap in solutions available today for IP services assurance," said Karl Whitelock, Senior Consulting Analyst with Stratecast, a Division of Frost & Sullivan. "While many operators have established excellent viewpoints into their network elements and service signaling, far fewer have found an effective means to secure the visibility they need into the IP traffic streams themselves to close the loop between high-level KPIs and the actual customer experience. NetScout's deep-packet viewpoint represents a means to bridge that gap."

New For MPLS: VRF Visibility

One of NetScout's most important recent developments has been the addition of capabilities to identify and monitor individual VRF (Virtual Routing & Forwarding) Paths in MPLS networks. This visibility is critical to mobile operators who use VRF Paths to segment traffic by service (authentication, roaming, ringtones, etc). If an operator cannot see inside the VRF Paths, it cannot fully understand and protect customer quality, and its ability to reduce churn and grow average revenue per user (ARPU) will be limited.

nGenius Solution in Customer-Facing Networks Globally

The nGenius Solution is already being used by multiple service providers in their customer-facing networks, including a leading Pan-African mobile operator who has used the nGenius Solution to:

* Optimize traffic engineering with trended network and service reporting for reality-based capacity planning.

* Protect against network misuse with application recognition.

* Gain comprehensive application-layer visibility within all MPLS VRFs in real-time as well as conduct post-event forensic analysis using extended packet recording.

* Realize immediate benefits by being able to pinpoint service degradations and reduce MTTR.

"Data services for most mobile CSPs now account for about ten percent of total revenues," said Patrick Kelly, cofounder and senior analyst, OSS Observer. "This share of service revenue will continue to increase, resulting in more investments in the service-management market to assess service degradation and customer impact. NetScout has identified some of the key requirements that CSPs need to manage capacity and utilization across the physical links of the IP/MPLS-based network core, evaluate traffic patterns and performance indicators by the virtual circuit level and GTP tunnel, and measure KPIs that affect roaming partners."

"Due to our deep experience managing the largest IP networks in the world and our carrier-class architecture, service providers are seeking out the nGenius Solution to protect the quality of the customer experience, lower risk during technology transitions and new service introductions and reduce OpEx and CapEx," said Bruce Kelley, NetScout's CTO. "Whether they want to ensure QoS by tracking high-value accounts by phone number or by quickly identifying a bandwidth hog in the MPLS segment by viewing multiple VRFs, service providers readily understand that the nGenius Solution can positively impact a profit center."

Availability

The nGenius Performance Management Solution for service providers, which includes the new MPLS VRF visibility functions, is available now.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is a market leader and pioneer of integrated network and application performance management products and solutions that assure critical business services across the enterprise. More than 3200 organizations worldwide have deployed NetScout's nGenius[R] Performance Management System to increase their return on infrastructure investments by optimizing the performance of networks and applications according to business priorities. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has offices worldwide. Further information is available at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout and the NetScout logo, nGenius, and Quantiva are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. The CDM logo, MasterCare, Progressive Analytics and the MasterCare logo, are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. Other brands, product names and trademarks are property of their respective owners. NetScout reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make changes at any time in its technical information and specifications, and service and support programs.