Spirent First to Market With 40G Optical Transport Test Solution.

Business & High-Tech Editors

CeBIT 2002

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 2002

Spirent's OTA-4400 is the only Solution for Critical SONET

Framing and Jitter Testing at 40G

Spirent Communications(TM), a wholly owned business group of Spirent plc (LSE: SPT, NYSE: SPM), today launched the first totally integrated solution with SONET framing and jitter testing for 40 Gigabit (40G) electrical and optical devices.

Spirent is present at the CeBIT Fair in Hannover, Germany, Hall 16, Stand B02/1.

The introduction of Spirent's OTA-4400 builds on Spirent's award-winning optical test solutions, which provide unique multi-channel testing of the optical data plane as well as protocol performance/conformance testing of the optical control plane. With true, physical layer SONET framing and jitter testing, Spirent is poised to capture a leading share of the emerging 40G test market.

"Unlike existing products, which first de-multiplex the 40G stream into lower rate channels before performing analysis, the OTA-4400 works at the 40G stream, allowing for extensive capabilities beyond Layer 1 40G Bit Error Rate (BER) testing," said Jason Nutt, director of marketing for the OTA-4400. "This unique feature will accelerate the deployment of next-generation optical network systems at a cost the market can bear."

Spirent's OTA-4400 is the only solution available with an architecture that will support OC-768 SONET functional testing and 40G jitter testing, both of which are essential to accelerate the introduction of reliable 40G components and systems within the next two years. Additional product characteristics of the OTA-4400 are as follows:

-- Modular architecture that allows for scalability and for multiple interfaces
of various types to be used simultaneously

-- Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) from Xilinx that allow for flexible
support of feature evolution for existing and new protocols

-- Testing with an extremely dense, single chassis versus existing solutions
that require up to five separate test units.

"The introduction of test solutions for 40G accelerates the promise of 40G networks and positions us squarely as the leading test equipment vendor in this market," said Barry Phelps, president of Spirent's Performance Analysis Solutions Division.

"It also rounds out Spirent's powerful product portfolio, which now covers all seven layers of the OSI stack, providing end-to-end performance analysis and service assurance from the physical layer through the application layer to the world's leading equipment manufacturers and network operators."

The OTA-4400 is available today for BER analysis. SONET functional testing and 40G Jitter analysis will be available in 2H 2002.

About Spirent Communications

Spirent Communications (www.spirentcom.com) unites the best in performance analysis technology with network operations expertise. The company's award-winning solutions enable customers to accelerate the development, deployment and assurance of next-generation network equipment and services worldwide.

Spirent Communications designs and manufactures Adtech, DLS, Edgcumbe, GSS, Hekimian, SmartBits, TAS and Zarak products. More than 2,500 of the world's leading network and terminal equipment manufacturers, network service providers, corporate enterprises and test laboratories rely on our first-to-market products to verify and measure the performance and services of networks and communications devices.

Spirent plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: SPT). The company is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange through a Level 2 American Depository Receipt program, through which one ADR represents four Spirent shares (ticker: SPM; CUSIP number: 84856M209). Further information about Spirent plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

Spirent and the Spirent logo are trademarks of Spirent plc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are held by their respective companies. All rights reserved.

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