Soapstone Networks(TM) Announces Support of IPsphere Forum's "SMS Child" for Controlling Network Resources.

N. BILLERICA, Mass. -- Avici Systems (NASDAQ:AVCI) announced today that through its Soapstone Networks business unit, formed to bring vendor/technology independent business-driven behavior to service provider networks, it is the first equipment vendor to commit support for the IPsphere Forum's business framework for IP services.

The IPsphere Forum was created to define a business-driven framework for members of the service provider community. A critical part of the IPSF's architecture is the "SMS Child", a component that links the IPsphere business framework to the control of the underlying network resources. Avici's is the first implementation of the SMS Child as defined in the Release One specification to be announced by an equipment vendor."

Soapstone is implementing the SMS Child as a northbound interface from its Provider Network Controller (PNC) [TM] product. "Because the PNC's architecture is designed to link network services to network resources through a universal control plane binding, it is a logical way to meet the multi-technology, multi-vendor requirements of IPsphere's SMS Child," said Larry Dennison, CTO of Avici Systems. "We are very pleased to show our support for IPsphere by making this contribution to its credibility and success."

In addition to announcing its support for the IPsphere SMS Child, Avici is also announcing an interoperability partnership with Pittsburgh-based software firm TrueBaseline, Inc. TrueBaseline, also a member of IPsphere, will work with Avici in demonstrating the interoperability of the new Avici SMS Child and TrueBaseline's full business framework implementation of IPsphere. The partnership will also include cooperative development and work on opportunities of common interest to the two firms.

"This is an exciting combination of firsts, with TrueBaseline being the first demonstration of a business process framework, and Avici providing the first SMS Child." said Stan Kramer, CEO of TrueBaseline. "We applaud Avici for stepping into an equipment vendor leadership role at the IPsphere table, and providing a compelling demonstration of IPsphere's principles. This is a further signal to the industry that IPsphere is ready to be deployed."

To further support IPsphere, Avici is also announcing that it will contribute, on an open source basis, its SMS Child Test Suite, a collection of software test components that validate specification compliance and interoperability.

"We believe that the IPsphere Forum is on the cutting edge of the issues facing service providers today," said Esmeralda Swartz, VP, Marketing, Avici Systems. "We are very pleased to be working with TrueBaseline, who has demonstrated their leadership in supplying the business plane of IPsphere. We look forward to working with other vendors in bringing the concepts of IPsphere to actual practice."

"All network standards are useful to the extent that they are implemented on actual equipment," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corporation, a Voorhees NJ consultancy. "When there is no network implementation available, service providers simply can't take a standard as seriously as they would if it could actually be used in their networks. Despite widespread public support from the major equipment vendors, none of them have stepped up and announced that their products would actually support IPsphere. Avici, the newest vendor member of the forum, is the first to do so."

Avici will announce details of its interoperability program for IPsphere in early March 2007.

About Soapstone Networks

Soapstone Networks, Avici's service platform business unit is focused on bringing orderly, predictable, business-driven behavior to service provider networks, regardless of vendor or technology composition. Its universal control plane, utilizes a SOA-based modular architecture to target different applications with agility.

About TrueBaseline

TrueBaseline Corp., is based out of Pittsburg, PA and is a technology leader in model-driven, policy-based service management software for next-generation networks. TrueBaseline has developed a series of Application Frameworks which are solution-engineered application models designed to support specific important industry tasks.