Riverstone Networks' Continued Vision and Leadership Help Establish Standards-Based 10 Gigabit Ethernet Technology.

Business/Technology Editors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 2000

Technology Pioneer and Market Leader, Riverstone Networks,

a Principal Member In The New 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance

Continuing its commitment to revolutionize high-speed metropolitan area networking, Riverstone Networks, a Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS) company, delivers a rich array of broadband switching solutions for service providers in all parts of the metropolitan area network (MAN).

Riverstone Networks has taken a leadership position, as a principal member working with other vendors, to form the new 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance. The Alliance is focused on accelerating the delivery of standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

"Through the Alliance and our technology leadership, Riverstone Networks leads the way in leveraging Ethernet's simplicity," said Romulus Pereira, president of Riverstone Networks. "With the rise of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the metropolitan network, anyone who can manage a LAN can manage a terabit metropolitan network. The simplicity of Ethernet combined with the control of IP and IP services, will drive down the cost of ultra high-speed networking by orders of magnitude."

For years, Riverstone has set the standards for Ethernet technologies. After inventing Layer 3/ 4 switching, Riverstone was the first to deliver wire speed, Gigabit Ethernet routing in the revolutionary RS family of multi-layer switch routers. The RS family currently holds 97% market share in the important Layer 3 switched WAN market - a segment crucial to all high-speed metropolitan area networks. In addition, the RS family is the only family of multi-layer switch routers to support a complete set of WAN interfaces from T1/T3 to Packet-over-Sonet and ATM OC-12c.

An extension of the pioneering work with Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet alleviates bottlenecks associated with the insatiable demand for bandwidth created by high-speed, last mile technologies. Broadband access solutions such as DSL, wireless, and cable modems combine with the bandwidth-intensive applications that now reside in distributed Internet data centers, to drive the skyrocketing appetite for bandwidth.

10 Gigabit Ethernet will be used to aggregate Gigabit Ethernet links, particularly in high- performance Internet data centers and between locations in MANs. In addition, a natural mapping occurs between 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OC-192c, making it possible to drive Ethernet into WAN applications. This will be particularly effective in interconnecting next-generation service provider points-of-presence (POPs).

Building on its market-leading position in Gigabit Ethernet, Riverstone is well positioned to extend its leadership in the rapidly growing metropolitan network market with Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet solutions.

About Riverstone Networks

Riverstone Networks designs and builds communication infrastructure for ISPs, MSOs and metro network providers, as well as for the data center needs of co-location, content hosting and ASPs. From hosting centers to WAN backbones, Riverstone networking equipment enables the end-to-end service-rich infrastructure that powers rapid subscriber growth, prevents subscriber churn, and increases service provider profit. Lead by the award winning RS family of multilayer switch routers, Riverstone solutions include Internet routers, application-aware switch routers, intelligent load balancers, web cache redirectors as well as software tools for provisioning, accounting, billing and service level management. Visit us at www.riverstonenet.com.

About Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems is a holding company for four of the most innovative, customer-focused organizations in the telecommunications and networking industry. In addition to Riverstone Networks, Cabletron's portfolio of companies includes Enterasys--the only provider of total network solutions singularly focused on enterprise-class customers--, Global Network Technology Services (GNTS)-- one of the largest independent network-consulting firms in the world, and Aprisma Management Technologies-- the leading provider of intuitive multi-vendor management solutions that meet the service level requirements of enterprise and service provider customers. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a decade under the symbol CS, Cabletron is an S&P 500 index company. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at http://www.cabletron.com.