Updates Include a Flexible Commercial Approach and Support for High Definition

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT – News) today announced significant updates to its local video switching offering, enabling its Vyvx customers to transmit – or “switch” – video feeds between two local loops within a single market.

Starting in June, the new offerings will give broadcasters access to Level 3’s extensive national Vyvx footprint of coverage and a cost-effective alternative for local switching services. New features and a competitive new pricing structure will add to a compelling value proposition that includes:

• An extensive footprint – At its launch, new local switching rates will be available in more than 50 markets, far surpassing the nearest competitor.
• HD support – Level 3’s Vyvx network will support HD loops in a number of markets starting the first day of launch, with support for both 1.5 Gigabits per second and 3 Gigabits per second. These services will initially be available in a dozen markets, including New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Miami, with more cities added in the coming year.
• International reach – The same local switching rates apply in all U.S. markets, as well as London.
• Loop flexibility – With Level 3, there are no access restrictions. Unlike other providers that require access to be procured through them, customers using Level 3’s Local Switching service will have the option to procure their own loops or buy through Level 3 Vyvx.

“Level 3 has a leg up on the competition in this area in that we have the largest number of fiber-video television switching centers in the U.S. We invite broadcasters to make the switch and take advantage of our superior connectivity,” said Peter Neill, senior vice president of Content Markets. “That connectivity, combined with Level 3’s extensive footprint and an attractive pricing structure will give Level 3 customers a significant value for their local switching services.”

The announcement furthers Level 3’s commitment to local markets and allowing customers to Link Globally and Connect Locally.

Local switching is currently one of a number of broadcast services Level 3 offers. For more information on Level 3’s Vyvx services, click here.

About Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT – News) is a leading international provider of fiber-based communications services. Enterprise, content, wholesale and government customers rely on Level 3 to deliver services with an industry-leading combination of scalability and value over an end-to-end fiber network. Level 3 offers a portfolio of metro and long-haul services, including transport, data, Internet, content delivery and voice. For more information, visit www.Level3.com.

IS5000 Family Enables Compute Clusters and Converged Data Centers to Operate at Any Scale While Reducing Operational Costs and Infrastructure Complexity

Mellanox® Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX – News) (TASE:MLNX), a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end connectivity solutions for data center servers and storage systems, today announced the immediate availability of its industry-leading IS5000 40Gb/s InfiniBand switch system family and FabricIT™ management suite. The IS5000 switch system family enables high-performance computing clusters and data centers to efficiently scale using switch building blocks from 36 to 648 ports in a single enclosure with an industry-lowest latency performance of 100ns. Leveraging Mellanox’s InfiniScale® IV 4th generation of InfiniBand switch silicon, the switch family and full line of host channel adapters, software and cables provide customers with the optimal combination of proven performance and efficiency enhancement to enable the next generation of high-performance computing, cloud infrastructures and enterprise data centers.

“The IS5000 switch family with FabricIT fabric management software offers a new level of provisioning flexibility without sacrificing system performance. The scalability of the new switch systems helps data center managers fully optimize their fabrics to meet the demanding requirements in today’s dynamic computing environment such as on-demand and cloud computing,” said Jie Wu, Research Director, Technical Computing at IDC. “Today’s announcement indicates that Mellanox is poised at the forefront of intelligent data center fabric management and performance by continuously rolling out new products to address the emerging market demands.”

Mellanox’s world leading family of IS5000 InfiniBand switch systems provides the following benefits:

• Comprehensive family of un-managed and managed edge switches and director-class modular switches, ideal for deployments of any size with the ability to scale as you grow
• Industry-leading switching capacities scaling from 2.88Tb/s to 51.8 Tb/s of fully non-blocking bandwidth in a single enclosure with support for all network topologies ranging from Fat-Tree, Mach, 3D-Torus, etc.
• The world’s lowest port-to-port switching latency of 100ns for 36-port switches and 300ns for modular switches (108-648 ports) providing 25-45 percent better latency than other comparable switches
• Most reliable and highly available systems
• • Redundant components such as fans, power supplies and management modules and support for automatic component and system failover providing industry-leading Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
  • Real time monitoring and correction for network congestion and automatic path failover ensuring applications receive uninterrupted connectivity under extreme traffic conditions
  • Extended end-to-end system validation including ables providing highest system uptime and maximum return-on-investment
• Up to four times higher scalability for multicast operations than other solutions
• Powerful embedded processors to run feature-rich FabricIT fabric management software providing ease of deployment, maintenance, trouble shooting and optimization
• • Delivers maximum system productivity and efficiency
• Large switching capacities and the ability to carry compute and storage traffic on a common converged fabric enables the creation of power and cost-efficient green HPC clusters and data centers

“Mellanox’s comprehensive end-to-end 40Gb/s connectivity solution of switches, fabric management, and adapters provide the highest return on investment by delivering superior bandwidth and latency performance, density and ease of use that enables data centers to operate systems at any scale while reducing operational costs and infrastructure complexity,” said Sanjay Manney, director of product marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox IS5000 InfiniBand switch systems provide the needed capabilities for the highest scalability, reliability and future growth, and can carry converged traffic with the combination of assured bandwidth and granular quality of service.”

The complete Mellanox system family consists of 36 fixed port switches, director class modular switches with configurations of 108, 216, 324 and 648 non-blocking ports. The IS5000 family of switches with integrated management functionality allows customers to grow their networks with Mellanox as the complete system for high-performance networking and unified networking vendor of choice. Common modules like switch, fan and power supplies across the entire IS5000 director class family of switches provide customers the ultimate value and ease of use.

Pricing and Availability

Mellanox’s IS5000 family of 40Gb/s InfiniBand switch systems are available today. Pricing is available upon request. For more information please visit www.mellanox.com/is5000.

About Mellanox

Mellanox Technologies is a leading supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage that optimize data center performance. Mellanox products deliver market-leading bandwidth, performance, scalability, power conservation and cost-effectiveness while converging multiple legacy network technologies into one future-proof solution. For the best in performance and scalability, Mellanox is the choice for Fortune 500 data centers and the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Founded in 1999, Mellanox Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and Yokneam, Israel. For more information, visit Mellanox at www.mellanox.com.

Low Power Consumption and Advanced Power Management Schemes Accommodate “Green” System Design Requirements

SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – 03/15/10) – Micrel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRL – News), an industry leader in analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, today launched the KSZ8873/KSZ8863 series. The devices are highly integrated 3-port switch-on-a-chip ICs offering the industry’s smallest footprint. They are designed to enable a new generation of low port count, cost-sensitive and power efficient 10/100Mbps switch systems. Lower power consumption, advanced power management schemes and sophisticated QoS features (including IPv6 priority classification) make these solutions ideal for IPTV, IP-STB, Voice-over-IP, media converter, automotive and industrial applications. Volume quantities are available now and samples can be ordered at: http://www.micrel.com/ProductList.do.

“The adoption of Ethernet connectivity in a broad range of consumer, automotive and industrial applications continues to accelerate,” noted Dr. J.C. Lin, Micrel’s vice president, Ethernet Products. “Micrel’s new devices, featuring improved QoS capabilities, are highly power efficient, making them ideal for green Ethernet switch systems in these burgeoning markets.”

The high integration of the KSZ8873/KSZ8863 series includes an on-chip LDO and an internally generated clock for the RMII interface — all of which reduce system cost and simplify system design. The interface configurations provided by the KSZ8873/KSZ8863 series, IEEE802.3-compliant transceiver interfaces and MII/RMII interfaces, enable the flexibility to meet the requirements of different applications. Enhanced QoS features, including traffic prioritization and source address filtering, facilitate implementation of advanced QoS policies in switch systems. The easy-to-use LinkMD® cable diagnostics support quick resolution of common cabling problems and reduce costly network downtime. Auto-MDI/MDIX eliminates the need for cross-over cable, thus reducing installation costs.

About Micrel, Inc.
Micrel Inc., is a leading global manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide analog, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets. The Company’s products include advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs. Company customers include leading manufacturers of enterprise, consumer, industrial, mobile, telecommunications, automotive, and computer products. Corporation headquarters and state-of-the-art wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Jose, CA, with regional sales and support offices and advanced technology design centers situated throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, the Company maintains an extensive network of distributors and reps worldwide. Web: http://www.micrel.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Acme Packet®, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT – News), the leader in session border control solutions, today announced that Phone Power LLC, a growing VoIP service provider to the U.S. and Canadian markets, has deployed Acme Packet’s Net-Net® 4500 session border controllers (SBCs) as part of a highly scalable SIP routing solution that eliminates the need for Class 4 softswitches in their network. The SBCs are also used by Phone Power at its access borders to secure and extend the reach of its hosted VoIP services to a greater number of business and residential customers. By leveraging the broad scope of functionality delivered by the Net-Net SBC, Phone Power believes it can achieve double-digit revenue growth in 2010 and beyond.

Phone Power is a next-generation telecommunications company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. A privately-owned company founded in 2005, they provide telecommunications service to the continental U.S. and Canada, with all customer service based in the U.S. Phone Power offers a broad diversity of services ranging from single-line residential voice to corporate contact centers. Phone Power’s retail products are available nationwide through retailers such as Best Buy and Fry’s.

To avoid using expensive Class 4 switches to route calls, Phone Power employs Acme Packet’s Open Session Routing (OSR) architecture, leveraging the high-capacity, high-performance SIP session routing capability of the Net-Net 4500 SBC. The versatility of OSR is enabling Phone Power to quickly enter new markets with services designed to help the company meet their goals for revenue growth over the next eight quarters.

To ensure that Phone Power meets or exceeds service level agreement assurance goals, the Net-Net SBCs are configured to statefully load-balance SIP sessions across Phone Power’s array of voice application servers. The load-balancing design also optimizes each server’s utilization, resulting in capex savings for Phone Power. Call detail records for each session are sent from the Net-Net SBC to an internal platform for mediation, rating and reporting. The real-time reports include quality-of-service measurements by destination, and can automatically remove destinations from the routing table when their quality-of-service falls below preset thresholds.

Phone Power additionally uses Acme Packet to protect its subscribers against toll fraud, an increasingly frequent type of VoIP attack that is often cited as perhaps the most significant and costliest threat to VoIP services today. Phone Power is mitigating the threat of toll fraud in its network by having the Net-Net SBC monitor all active sessions, operating in conjunction with Phone Power’s proprietary heuristics engine to identify and proactively disconnect potentially fraudulent calls.

“We chose the Net-Net 4500 platform primarily because of the enormous access-side growth we are experiencing,” said Jim Murphy, Managing Partner at Phone Power. “Acme Packet’s field-proven SBC feature set, along with its flexibility and ability to scale will contribute to that growth while helping us to keep costs in check.”

“By choosing next-generation, IP-based approaches over traditional Class 4 switching, competitive service providers like Phone Power are becoming a viable alternative to incumbent providers,” said Seamus Hourihan, Acme Packet’s vice president of marketing and product management. “Acme Packet’s OSR architecture provides the necessary capabilities for service providers to deliver trusted, first-class SIP-based services.”

About Acme Packet

Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT – News), the leader in session border control solutions, enables the delivery of trusted, first-class interactive communications—voice, video and multimedia sessions—and data services across IP network borders. Our Net-Net family of session border controllers, multiservice security gateways and session routing proxies supports multiple applications in service provider, enterprise and contact center networks—from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed-mobile convergence. They satisfy critical security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable and wireless networks; and support multiple protocols—SIP, H.323, MGCP/NCS, H.248 and RTSP—and multiple border points—service provider access and interconnect, and enterprise access and trunking. Our products have been selected by 910 customers in 100 countries. They include 48 of the top 50, and 90 of the top 100 service providers in the world; and 8 of the Fortune 25. For more information, contact us at +1 781.328.4400, or visit www.acmepacket.com.

SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – 01/25/10) – Pericom Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEM – News), a worldwide-preferred supplier of high-speed integrated circuits and frequency control products, today announced production availability of five new high-performance signal switch products. These devices extend Pericom’s family of PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 devices operating at 5.0Gbps with new, more complex functions that can further optimize performance and cost in networking, storage, telecom, and embedded applications.

“This new family of PCIe 2.0 signal switches addresses the need created by feature-rich customer platforms with multiple PCIe sockets,” said Alan Yuen, senior director of product marketing for signal switch products at Pericom Semiconductor. “The design engineer is faced with ever-increasing I/O complexity, and these products provide expanded solutions and include new features that can add real value to the platform. There are no equivalent devices with similar functionality and performance available today.”

Pericom PCIe 2.0 signal switches are used for slot configuration and expansion in workstations, servers, storage, embedded, and telecom equipment. They are used for lane control in high-end desktop gaming systems, for system fail-over redundancy in high-reliability systems, and in a variety of other applications. In addition to PCIe, Pericom’s differential signal switches are available for a variety of industry standard interface protocols, including SAS, SATA, XAUI, Infiniband, HyperTransport, Ethernet, HDMI, DVI, DP, USB and more. Pericom’s new PCIe signal switches are unique in providing deterministic timing, zero latency, and operate at the physical layer only, providing cost effective lane switching when IP packet level routing is not required.

Key Features

This new family includes the PI2PCIE2212, PI2PCIE2214, PI2PCIE2442, PI2PCIE2452 and PI3PCIE2215. The PI2PCIE2212 is a 1-lane PCIe 2.0 signal switch providing 2:1 mux/demux operation via a single select control. The PI2PCIE2214 is also a 1-lane version providing 4:1 mux/demux operation. The PI2PCIE2442 is a 2-lane (4-differential channels), PCIe 2.0 signal switch providing 2:2 bus exchange operation via a single select control. The PI2PCIE2452 is also a 2-lane version providing 2:2 matrix switching operation. All devices support 5.0Gbps operation, have very high bandwidth, and feature minimal insertion loss and crosstalk. All devices support full-duplex, bi-directional operation. Except for the PI3PCIE2215, which operates from 3.3V power, they operate at 1.8V nominally. The PI2PCIE2212 and PI3PCIE2215 are packaged in a 3.5mm x 5.5mm 28-TQFN package. The other three devices are supplied in 3.5mm x 9.0mm 42-TQFN packages.

Samples, datasheets, application notes, simulation models, and additional information can be found by visiting the company website. www.pericom.com

Pricing & Availability

This family is available now in production quantities, with pricing under $2.00 in 10Ku quantities.

Press Graphic:

Visit our press graphics page for high-resolution images at http://www.pericom.com/press/pr_graphics.php

About Pericom:

Pericom Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEM – News) enables serial connectivity with the industry’s most complete solutions for the computing, communications and consumer market segments. Pericom’s analog, digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, along with their SaRonix and eCERA frequency control products are essential in the timing, switching, bridging and conditioning of high-speed signals required by today’s ever-increasing speed-and-bandwidth-demanding applications. Company headquarters are in San Jose, Calif., with design centers and technical sales and support offices globally. Please visit http://www.pericom.com for more information.

PCI Express, PCIe and PCI-SIG are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG.org.

Added MPLS Capability on ExaScale™ Switch/Router Line Enables Carriers to Leverage Ethernet Economics to Build Cost-Effective Next-Generation Network Cores that Support Ever-Growing Bandwidth Needs

Force10 Networks, Inc., a global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business, today announced the immediate availability of MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) functionality for its ExaScale™ E-Series core switch/routers. Extending MPLS label switch router (LSR) support to the ExaScale platform enables businesses, such as wholesale carriers, Internet exchange carriers, Internet portals and global 500 enterprises, to seamlessly expand capacity within their MPLS core infrastructure in order to more cost effectively support the rapid growth of “best effort” multimedia traffic.

“Ongoing market developments continue to show that a more cost-effective MPLS LSR core providing Ethernet reliability and resiliency will represent the logical evolution of the network,” says Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, Yankee Group. “Force10 sees the market similarly; and as a result, their specific MPLS LSR approach contrasts with traditional core router suppliers who just want to develop high-bandwidth Ethernet interfaces for these carrier platforms but don’t necessarily address the economic challenges facing the core network.”

Purpose-Built for Specialized Market Needs

As a purpose-built Ethernet-optimized LSR, the ExaScale platform solves a significant financial burden for network operators needing to scale the MPLS core network to accommodate ever-increasing amounts of best effort multimedia traffic. “Customers tell us video and web content alone currently accounts for more than 50% of total Internet traffic, and that percentage continues to increase,” says Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing, Force10 Networks. “This rapid growth associated with traffic not directly tied to revenues is driving carriers to look for alternatives to traditional general purpose core routers for expanding capacity more cost effectively.”

The ExaScale platform combines high-density, non-blocking, line-rate 10 GbE switching and routing with robust MPLS LSR support at 1/5th of the cost of a traditional core router, enabling carriers to fully capitalize on the economic advantages of Ethernet. In addition to capital cost savings, the ExaScale platform’s patent-protected hardware and software innovations provide significant space- and power-related savings while also ensuring high availability.

Extending Force10’s Leadership in Switching, Routing and High Availability into the Carrier Core

The Force10 E-Series delivers an Internet-scale BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routing implementation, and a high availability design, that has been proven in deployments with many of the world’s largest network operators. The ExaScale platform utilizes a distributed forwarding architecture incorporating three CPUs and leverages distributed control plane processing to deliver hitless failover as well as graceful and deterministic failure recovery. All system components are hot swappable and 1+1 control plane redundancy is supported. Force10’s FTOS, operating system software which runs on the ExaScale hardware platform, is fully modular and built on NetBSD and a Unix-like kernel to ensure high reliability and availability. With support for 140 line-rate 10 GbE SFP+ ports in a half-rack chassis, the ExaScale E-Series is the only switch/router with 125 Gbps of useable data capacity per slot today.

“Introducing MPLS LSR functionality to the ExaScale platform illustrates our ongoing commitment to combine the best of switching and routing to deliver disruptive economic advantages to core networks, first in the data center and now in the carrier core,” says Garrison. “As carriers adopt 10 GbE in their MPLS core networks, we are confident that they will increasingly leverage our Ethernet-optimized LSR to expand capacity for a lower cost.”

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business. Force10’s products deliver the scalability, reliability and application awareness to cost-effectively provide content from the enterprise or converged network to the mobile business user or consumer. For more information on Force10 Networks, please visit www.force10networks.com.

New Family of 120Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Systems Deliver Breakthrough Performance and Efficiency, Ultra Low-Latency and the Highest Levels of Scalability

Mellanox® Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX – News) (TASE:MLNX), a leading supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for data center servers and storage systems, today announced the world’s first 120Gb/s per port InfiniBand switch systems, delivering industry-leading throughput, performance, efficiency, and the lowest latency. Based on InfiniScale® IV, Mellanox’s 4th generation of InfiniBand switch silicon, the new members of the IS5000 switch system family deliver the highest networking bandwidth per port to enable the next generation of high-performance computing, cloud infrastructures and enterprise data centers. The new switch solutions reduce network congestion and the number of network cables by a factor of three to provide customers with the optimal combination of cost-effective, proven performance and efficiency enhancements to address next-generation, Petascale computing demands.

“As supercomputers scale, new challenges are created in performance and cabling,” said John Monson, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox’s new comprehensive family of 120Gb/s switch solutions deliver the performance, density and scalability for large-scale clusters, and provide researchers with essential building blocks for constructing the next generation of Petascale-class clusters.”

Mellanox IS5000 family of switch systems, consisting of un-managed and managed edge switches and director-class modular switches, provide industry-leading 51.8 Tb/s of non-blocking bandwidth in a single enclosure. FabricIT™ fabric management software reduces management overhead by providing the essential capabilities for managing systems at scale with simplicity and flexibility. IT managers can optimize data center performance and efficiency with FabricIT’s performance monitoring, granular Quality of Service, and dynamic adaptation of the network to meet application demands in real-time. By enabling IT managers to adapt networking settings by application demands in real time, the IS5000 products deliver maximum systems productivity and efficiency for any usage model and for any scale.

Pricing and Availability

Mellanox’s IS5000 family of 120Gb/s InfiniBand switch systems will be available in the first half of 2010. Pricing is available upon request. For more information please visit www.mellanox.com/is5000.

120Gb/s Demonstration at SC09 (November 16-19, 2009)

Visit Mellanox Technologies during SC09, booth#1301, to see a live 120Gb/s networking demonstration featuring Mellanox’s family of IS5000 switch systems. With collaboration from the HPC Advisory Council (www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com), the 120Gb/s demonstration will connect 23 exhibitors on the SC09 showroom floor to create a visualization cluster that will enable a real-time 3D navigation of full-scale automotive CAD models.

About Mellanox

Mellanox Technologies is a leading supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage that optimize data center performance. Mellanox products deliver market-leading bandwidth, performance, scalability, power conservation and cost-effectiveness while converging multiple legacy network technologies into one future-proof solution. For the best in performance and scalability, Mellanox is the choice for Fortune 500 data centers and the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Founded in 1999, Mellanox Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and Yokneam, Israel. For more information, visit Mellanox at www.mellanox.com.

Enterprise-grade solution drives productivity enhancements for small and mid-sized businesses at an affordable price.

Today One Communications, the largest privately-held, multi-regional integrated telecommunications solutions provider in the United States, announced the availability of its new OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX solution. A network-based offering, OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX allows small and mid-sized businesses to replace their premise-based Key or PBX systems, or upgrade their hosted legacy Centrex systems, while also integrating voice and data services in one convenient package – delivering robust IP-based features and functionality that improve business productivity at a more affordable price.

“Small and mid-sized businesses demand a single, simplified solution that meets all their needs from equipment, to converged voice and data communications, to ongoing service and support – all at an affordable price,” said Randy Ritter, vice president of marketing for One Communications. “With our Hosted IP PBX offering we deliver on those needs with a flexible, cost-effective solution that minimizes upfront capital expenditures, streamlines ongoing network modifications and management, and improves overall communications efficiencies.”

One Communications OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX provides customers with an end-to-end single vendor solution, including hardware; voice, data, and Internet services with optional MPLS VPN wide area networking at no additional fee; and ongoing service and support for an affordable, predictable monthly cost. Because the service is hosted, upfront capital expenditures are virtually eliminated – critical to managing cash flow in today’s economic environment – while businesses enjoy improved flexibility and scalability to address their changing needs.

The use of IP technology provides a robust feature set that can be tailored to the unique needs of each business. Customers are able to enhance their overall productivity through advanced capabilities, such as the ability to set up individual user rules for on-demand call forwarding that seamlessly integrates with remote offices, mobile devices, and more. As a result, businesses can be more responsive and stay better connected with colleagues, customers, and vendors.

“With OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX, small and mid-sized businesses gain access to the robust features they need while outsourcing the design, installation and ongoing maintenance of their phone system – enabling them to lower their overall networking costs, improve IT productivity, and focus more on running their business,“ said Joanne Hynes, director of product management at One Communications.

OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX utilizes a network-based solution supported by industry leading customer premise equipment (CPE), including a Cisco Integrated Access Device (IAD) or Integrated Services Router (ISR) and the customer’s choice of IP handsets from Cisco, Aastra, and Polycom. The solution offers two seat-level packages (basic and premium) with standard and a la carte features:

• The basic package includes traditional calling features such as Caller ID Name & Number, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Direct Inward/Outward Dialing, and Hunting, as well as Voice Mail and Unified Messaging
• The premium package includes all the features of the basic package, plus more advanced capabilities such as Find Me/Follow Me, Incoming Call Manager, and Live Message Screening
• Both packages support several ala carte features, including Virtual Fax, Auto Attendant, Automated Call Distribution (ACD), Music On Hold, and Easy Attendant

All OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX customers have access to the CommPortal – a robust, online user interface for administrator-level and end-user self-management of call services and settings. And, the premium package includes a convenient CommPortal Assistant Tool Bar that provides one-click web access to the Portal, pop-up voice mail notification and incoming call management right from a PC. Layered over One Communications integrated OneSolutions Complete product, the solution also delivers converged voice, Internet and MPLS VPN services, a host of optional features including Email and Web Hosting, and is backed by a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA).

OneSolutions Hosted IP PBX is widely available across One Communications regional service market, which includes 18 states from Maine to Wisconsin to West Virginia, plus the District of Columbia. To learn more, please visit our website.

About One Communications

One Communications, with corporate headquarters in Burlington, MA and operational headquarters in Rochester, NY, is the largest privately-held, multi-regional integrated telecommunications solutions provider in the United States. With nearly 2000 employees and close to $800M in annual revenue, the company serves approximately 160,000 small and mid-sized business customers in 18 states across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest, plus the District of Columbia. Through its facilities-based IP network and customer-focused approach, One Communications delivers the right solutions at the right price to help companies communicate, save, and grow. To learn more, visit us at www.onecommunications.com.

The CN 5305 is based on Ciena’s fieldproven True Carrier Ethernet™technology, deployed by dozens of network operators in tens of thousands of homes and businesses. It combines the low cost and high capacity of Ethernet with the reliability, management, and service quality usually associated with SONET/SDH networking systems. The CN 5305 software architecture is based on a common service-aware operating system used in all Ciena Service Delivery Switches and Service Aggregation Switches to provide consistent system and service attributes and operational efficiency.

The CN 5305 features a state-of-the-art design that delivers the sophisticated Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, superior Virtual LAN (VLAN) and virtual switching functions, and robust management and performance monitoring features. These functions are required to support carriergrade Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks (L2 VPNs), mission-critical data, high-speed Internet, and high-quality IPTV VoIP services.

The CN 5305 incorporates the latest innovations in Ethernet switching technology, Ethernet control plane protocols, and Carrier Ethernet Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) mechanisms. The CN 5305 utilizes highperformance programmable processors to deliver new features and functionality through simplified software upgrades with minimal disruption to customer traffic. This programmable architecture keeps capital and operating costs to a minimum while providing a flexible platform that maximizes revenue potential.

Ciena’s CN 5305
(Photo: Ciena)

Press Release:

Ciena’s CN 5305 Service Aggregation Switch Receives Highest Possible Ranking from Broadband Gear Report

Carrier Ethernet switch recognized by panel of MSO technical executives as a superb product that sets a new standard for performance and provides groundbreaking new technical milestones

Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN – News), the network specialist, today announced that its CN 5305™ Service Aggregation Switch received the highest possible ranking – 5 out of 5 diamonds – in Broadband Gear Report’s (BGR) 2009 Diamond Technology Reviews. Based on BGR’s product rating system of 0 to 5 diamonds, a score of 5 is considered to be “a superb product that sets a new standard for performance and provides groundbreaking new technical milestones.” Platforms within Ciena’s Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery (CESD) portfolio (CESD) portfolio, which includes CN 5305, have been deployed by more than 100 carriers, wireless service providers, cable operators and new entrants in 25 countries, including recent deployments by Clearwire and Mzima Networks.

Based on Ciena’s field-proven True Carrier Ethernet® technology, CN 5305 is optimized for metro edge networks and delivers high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) connectivity to the subscriber edge and high-performance 10GbE uplinks to the service provider core. It combines the low cost and high capacity of Ethernet with the reliability, management and service quality typically associated with SONET/SDH systems. CN 5305 features a software architecture based on a common, service-aware operating system that is used across Ciena’s entire CESD portfolio, providing a consistent deployment model and zero-touch, automated device configuration and service provisioning that can result in up to 60 percent faster service provisioning and as much as 40 percent reduction in operational expense versus platforms that rely on manual configurations.

“Ciena’s CN 5305 Service Aggregation Switch received superlative rankings in this year’s Diamond Technology Reviews program with the judges paying particular notice to its robustness,” said Laura Hamilton, editor-in-chief at BGR. “The panelists who reviewed the solution saw it as an elegant way for cable operators to contend with mixing and managing multiple service encapsulation formats and handing them off successfully between the access and core networks.”

The Diamond Technology Reviews are an annual product rating program where a group of senior broadband industry engineering professionals organized by BGR’s editorial team analyze product applications submitted by the broadband industry’s vendor community. This year, the judges included executives from Armstrong, Charter, Cox, Rogers, Suddenlink and Sunflower Broadband. The full results of the judging will be published both in BGR as well as in a special print issue to be distributed at SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo, from October 28-30, 2009 in Denver, Colo. Ciena will be showcasing CN 5305 at the Expo in Booth #11033.

“This recognition by BGR’s panel of technical industry executives further validates the customer traction we’re seeing for flexible Carrier Ethernet solutions that can cost-effectively scale to support the growing capacity needs and service diversity of today’s metro edge networks,” said Steve Alexander, chief technology officer at Ciena. “CN 5305 achieves this through its unique pay-as-you-grow architecture and innovative software automation that lets service providers rapidly modify and introduce new services – across a broad range of relevant applications, including wireless backhaul and Ethernet business, residential and wholesale services.”

About Ciena

Ciena specializes in practical network transition. We offer leading network infrastructure solutions, intelligent software and a comprehensive services practice to help our customers use their networks to fundamentally change the way they compete. With a global presence, Ciena leverages its heritage of practical innovation to deliver maximum performance and economic value in communications networks worldwide. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

About Broadband Gear Report (BGR)

Broadband Gear Report – www.broadbandgear.net – was launched in 2004 by Hermes Media & Research and has become the leading online product and deployment alert service for broadband engineering professionals. The Diamond Technology Reviews was launched in 2005 to answer the need for an unbiased technology review program within the broadband community. BGR is a twice-monthly emailed newsletter and website sent to over 8,000 cable broadband engineering managers in the Tier 1, Tier 2 and independent operators in the North America and Europe. Since its launch in 2004, BGR has grown by over 5,000 subscribers, and enjoys a roster of over 40 sponsors. BGR is a Hermes Media & Research publication. Tim Hermes, CEO & Publisher, and Laura Hamilton, Vice President & Editor-in-Chief, have a combined 30 years experience in broadband business-to-business publishing.

Optelian, a trusted designer and manufacturer of optical transport systems, today announced the availability of the MPX-81-EX gigabit Ethernet muxponder for aggregation and switching applications.

“Because of its flexibility, this is a very useful card for a wide variety of Ethernet applications over optical transport networks,” said Dave Mills, VP Sales for Optelian. “Not only does it optimize bandwidth, but it also provides carrier-grade support of Ethernet LAN, WAN, E-LAN and E-Line type services.”

The MPX-81-EX has eight GbE client ports, and two 10 GbE line LAN/WAN ports. Client ports utilize SFP transceivers, and line ports use XFP transceivers, allowing the unit to interface with a wide variety of equipment and network configurations including CWDM or DWDM systems for even higher fiber utilization. This unit joins the MPX-3GOTN (four 2.5 Gb/s signals into one 10 Gb/s OTU-2 signal) in the LightGAIN muxponder product line.

The MPX-81-EX can serve as a simple eight GbE to one 10 GbE muxponder to free-up fiber or wavelengths for other services. It can also serve as an Ethernet switch with Provider Bridge VLAN capability. The two 10 GbE interfaces can be set independently to LAN or WAN interfaces allowing the device to act as a LAN to WAN PHY converter for transporting 10 GbE LAN signals over SONET networks. Standard Ethernet features such as Rapid Spanning Tree, support for jumbo packets, and performance monitoring statistics are included.

With the addition of the MPX-81-EX, Optelian’s LightGAIN system now provides a fully integrated Layer 1 and 2 system in a reliable, small footprint, low-power consumption package. It will be particularly useful for conserving fiber on mobile backhaul and IPTV/triple play applications, as well as allowing service providers to offer additional Ethernet services over their networks.

Optelian will be displaying its products, including the MPX-81-EX, in booth 2820 during SUPERCOMM 2009 at McCormick Place in Chicago, October 21-23, 2009.

About Optelian

Optelian, a trusted designer and manufacturer of optical transport systems, serves some of the world’s largest network operators. With more than 200 customers and over 80,000 wavelengths installed, the company is known industry-wide for its exceptional product quality, speed of delivery, superior customer support and custom-design capabilities. Since 2002, Optelian’s portfolio of optical solutions has enabled telecom, multi-service operator (MSO), utility and enterprise customers to expand their fiber capacity so they can increase revenue, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. The company’s Sales and Marketing and Service operations are located in Marietta, Georgia, with in-house development and manufacturing based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For more information, visit www.optelian.com.