Tiara Extends Multilink Access Family With High-Density POP Router and Scalable Entry-Level Customer Platform.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2001

New 6302 Product for POPs and 1200C for Business Users Provide

Multilink Internet Access Solutions to Service Providers

Tiara Networks further solidified its leadership in multilink edge networking solutions by announcing today that it has extended the range and functionality of its product family with two new products, the Tiara 6302 Aggregation Edge Router and the Tiara 1200C Multilink Access Router. The 6302 scales edge networking capacity for service providers, while the 1200C offers pay-as-you-grow upgrade capacity for small business customers.

"Tiara's mission has always been to make cost-effective broadband access available to everyone and to make it easy and profitable for service providers to offer such access," said Paul Smith, president and CEO of Tiara. "These extensions to our product line continue our tradition of leveraging multilink technologies to provide high-efficiency, low-cost solutions."

The Tiara 6302 Aggregation Edge Router is now the company's highest-density POP product, offering service providers twice the capacity for edge IP services. The entry-level Tiara 1200C Multilink Access Router now offers medium and small-sized business customers a cost-effective upgrade path from single or dual T1 up to quad T1 or 6Mbps.

Together, the Tiara 6302 and Tiara 1200C create an extremely flexible and easy to deploy dedicated Internet access solution. Internet service providers (ISPs) can deploy the Tiara 6302 at their points of presence (POPs) and the Tiara 1200C at their customers' locations and offer granular Internet access with bandwidth from DS0 to multiple T1s.

"Tiara's new products are well positioned for service providers who want to upgrade their capacity while keeping costs under control," said Andy McCormick, senior analyst at the Aberdeen Group. "Since most enterprises are not ready to jump from a T1 directly to a T3, Tiara allows providers to offer additional bandwidth to meet customer needs without over-provisioning. Combined with increased service aggregation capabilities in the POP, network costs can be kept in line with incremental revenues."

Tiara 6302 Aggregation Edge Router

The Tiara 6302 doubles the scalability of the company's family of provider edge routers, aggregating traffic from up to 256 end customers into two channelized T3 ports and offering 90 Mbps throughput. Using Tiara's standards-based Multilink Frame Relay and Multilink PPP implementations, the 6302 allows service providers to create bundles of DSO and/or T1 circuits for their end customers. Service providers can thus easily offer very granular Internet service levels to accommodate every need.

The unit has two Ethernet ports for POP interconnect. Management is handled via in-band SNMP, Telnet, dial-up modem, or ASCII terminal. A command line interface simplifies installation, provisioning, and maintenance.

The new product is compact, occupying the same space as Tiara's model 6300, which has a single channelized T3 port, and it consumes less power than two 6300 units. The Tiara 6302 provides a cost-effective way for ISPs to add subscribers, deploy new services, and migrate towards next-generation IP networks.

The Tiara 6302 is available now for a price of $25,999 per unit.

University of Texas Upgrades to Tiara 6302

"The University of Texas Facilities Group acts as a service provider for the university as well as for school districts and libraries around the state. Two years ago, we installed Tiara equipment in a network that serves all of these end users because it gave us an affordable, easy-to-install, high-bandwidth Internet access path," said Wayne Wedemeyer, manager of networking and telecommunications facilities for the University of Texas. "However, many of our 300-plus user sites now need multiple T1s. The Tiara 6302 will let us expand without interrupting service to our end users."

Many sites at the University of Texas are using extra T1 lines to support H.323 videoconferencing for live, two-way distance learning. In addition, the two Ethernet ports in the Tiara 6302s, 6300s, and 4200s in the system's 14 POPs enable the university to offer access to Internet 2, which is educational and research-oriented, as well as to the regular Internet. The University of Texas has already installed one Tiara 6302 and plans to install three more this fall.

Tiara 1200C Multilink Access Router

The new Tiara 1200C Multilink Access Router, comes standard with two T1 ports but is software upgradeable to four T1 capacity. With the standard configuration users who have outgrown a single T1 line can immediately add the second. Then, down the road, with a simple software upgrade, they can enable the third and fourth T1 ports for maximum capacity. This pay-as-you-grow approach is particularly beneficial for small or medium enterprises who must plan for rapid growth but are not ready for the cost and installation problems of DS3.

Like other Tiara access routers, the 1200C supports multiple packet-based access protocols, including IP, frame relay, and virtual LAN networking. Service providers offering managed access services can manage the Tiara 1200C remotely using in-band SNMP, Telnet, or a dial-up modem.

Available now for $4,499, the Tiara 1200C offers multilink access at the lowest price on the market.

About Tiara Networks

Tiara Networks, Inc., provides next-generation, carrier-class networking solutions, enabling service providers to deploy broadband-IP and packet-based services rapidly and cost effectively. Tiara's access and edge router family of products is purpose-built for high-performance, distributed edge networking. For additional information, please visit Tiara Networks online at www.tiaranetworks.com or send email to [e-mail].