QUARRY TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCES THE IQ4000 IP SERVICE EDGE SWITCH.

Quarry Technologies, Inc., an innovative supplier of intelligent Internet Protocol (IP) services equipment, has debuted its newest product, the iQ4000(TM) IP Service Edge Switch. The iQ4000 switch is an ideal entry platform for network service providers to introduce revenue-generating intelligent services, such as secure Internet access, private intranets and extranets with Quality of Service (QoS), managed network firewalls, and more. The iQ4000 switch enables the most comprehensive array of high-value IP services available, with the finest granularity and the best performance per flow - all from the most cost-effective and scalable IP services platform in the industry.

The iQ4000 IP Service Edge Switch is optimized for delivering advanced IP services in community Central Offices and Points of Presence, optical-Ethernet Metropolitan Area Networks, Multi-Tenant Units, and major enterprise Wide Area Networks. It joins the Quarry Technologies iQ product family alongside the higher capacity iQ8000(TM) IP Service Edge Switch and the iQSMS(TM) Service Management Suite.

"Carriers are seeking IP service-enabling platforms that will allow them to try out new services in their production networks," said Liza Henderson, Vice President of Consulting at TeleChoice, a strategic catalyst for the telecom industry. "The iQ4000 switch from Quarry Technologies overcomes their concerns regarding the cost of enabling equipment and scales to meet customer demand for advanced services. Delivering such a feature-rich product, at a very attractive price point will simplify the purchasing decision for carriers," Ms. Henderson.

A highly manageable solution, the iQ4000 switch allows network operators to add intelligent services quickly and easily, while minimizing the risks associated with new service offerings. It integrates well with existing access and backbone infrastructures - technology-aware, but not technology-constrained. Service management is provided through the graphical iQSMS application set, which is synchronized with the switch's familiar command line interface. As such, the Quarry Technologies solution fits naturally into the service providers' operational workflow to reduce the cost and effort of provisioning procedures, and to ensure efficient use of network resources.

"The iQ4000 IP Service Edge Switch is an exceptional platform on which to introduce intelligent network services," said Cam Cullen, Director of Product Management at Quarry Technologies. "It is small and relatively inexpensive, yet it scales to greater service densities than competitive systems many times its size and price."

Nine units will fit into a single Telco rack, supporting over one million subscribers with over two million engineered traffic flows, and up to 45 Gbps of 3DES IPsec processing power. Utilizing Optical-speed Encrypted Traffic Engineering technology, full line rate is maintained on every interface even while applying decryption/encryption and application-level QoS to subscriber traffic flows, and collecting all relevant management statistics and accounting data. With its unmatched performance and versatility, services based on the iQ4000 switch can be customized to deliver fine-grained QoS concurrently with state-of-the-art security. This ensures that sensitive networked applications receive appropriate and predictable performance, while remaining completely private and confidential.

"This switch will make it easier for service providers to test market high-margin advanced services that, when successful, can be quickly and easily rolled-out to large numbers of subscribers," Mr. Cullen continued. "Providers using the iQ4000 switch can also gain valuable experience with services designed to increase customer retention."

The iQ4000 IP Service Edge Switch employs an eight-slot chassis designed to fit standard 19-inch Telco racks. It supports two Forwarding and Scheduling (F&S) modules, one Control Processor (CP) module and one 10 Gbps Switch Fabric (IOX) module. The switch features multiple cooling fans and redundant load-sharing AC or DC power supplies. The iQ4000 switch is configurable with a broad range of network interfaces including, 10/100 Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet; DS-3/E-3, OC-3c and OC-12c ATM; OC-3c, OC-12c Packet over SONET/SDH; and channelized DS-3 TDM. All modules are hot-swappable, and compatible with the Quarry Technologies iQ8000 IP Service Edge Switch.

The iQ4000 IP Service Edge Switch, like the iQ8000 switch, is built using Quarry Technologies' patented FAST architecture. FAST (Flow Application Streaming Technology(TM)) is based on a unique combination of programmable network processors and custom-designed ASICs that provide the most sophisticated IP packet processing capability on the market. The FAST architecture enables the Quarry Technologies iQ-series switches to deliver higher performance and greater scalability. The FAST architecture allows new capabilities and functions to be added to the switches through simple software upgrades, ensuring investment protection and continuous product upgradeability. The iQ4000 IP Service Edge Switch will be generally available in July, 2001. Pricing for the iQ4000 Starter Kit is $54,995 MSRP. Volume discounts may apply.

Quarry Technologies, Inc. is an innovative privately held developer of service-enabling systems for the telecommunications market. Together, Quarry Technologies' iQ-series of IP Service Edge Switches and iQSMS(TM) Service Management Suite give network service providers the ability to offer a broad range of new and profitable subscriber services that can be customized to the individual requirements of numerous diverse customers.