DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JUNE 9, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 23    ( Table of Contents )

Breaking News - Networking:

Agere Systems And NComm Announce New WAN Solution

NComm, Inc. and Agere Systems announced the availability of a complete, standards-based wide area network (WAN) interface solution for SDH transport and automatic protection switching (APS). The addition of SDH support to the Agere/NComm joint solution makes it the only single chip and software product that encompasses multinational, low and high-speed technologies including T1/E1, T3/E3, SONET, SONET APS, and now SDH and SDH APS. It is also the industry's only solution which allows equipment vendors to use one platform to interface with both the optical core and copper-based technologies on the access link, enabling wireless and wireline applications. In doing so, equipment makers ensure reliability, flexibility, and interoperability while realizing significant development time and cost savings.

"The addition of SDH and SDH APS to Agere's FlexMap mapper product family, together with NComm's management software, brings a new level of flexibility to equipment vendors and their customers in terms of WAN options," said C. Michael Wallace, product manager for mappers with Agere Systems. "This solution is a turnkey and proven product that allows vendors to take advantage of new market opportunities quickly and cost-effectively," he said. "It will enable enterprise WAN or service provider equipment makers to quickly support new WAN transports as required by the customer without wholesale upgrades of the hardware and software."

The integrated WAN interface solution consists of Ultramapper hardware products from Agere and NComm's Telecommunications Management Software(TMS), supporting T1/E1, T3/E3, SONET, SONET APS, SDH and SDH APS. Agere's Ultramapper products provide the framing, mapping and multiplexing functions of physical transport. NComm TMS manages the overhead of physical transport including alarms, maintenance and performance monitoring. The solution enables equipment makers to quickly add functionality to systems with proven, standards-compliant WAN interfaces, but without the cost and risk associated with in-house Layer 1 engineering development.

"The most basic requirement of telecommunications and data communications services is the reliable operation of the WAN transport, often considered a weak link by service providers. As upper layer wireless and wireline application services are being rolled out, if the WAN link is not functioning properly or not interoperable, the services will fail," said John Brandte, vice president of marketing and business development for NComm. "NComm TMS integrated with Agere's Ultramapper platform not only brings unprecedented flexibility and cost savings, but also guarantees proper functioning and interoperability of the physical layer."

Reliability, availability and interoperability in the WAN are becoming increasingly crucial as new consumer and mission critical business services ride on the WAN transport layer, nesting DS-0s within T1/E1, within T3/E3, within the optical transport. If the physical layer doesn't work, nothing works. Agere and NComm address the increasing complexity by bringing to market a product that ensures proper functioning of the WAN, including protection switching, and the seamless delivery of telecommunications and data communications services over multiple transports.

Telica, Inc., a leading provider of softswitch-based, intelligent voice switching solutions, is using the Agere/NComm solution in its Plexus 9000 platform. "The flexibility of the Agere/Ncomm solution allows Telica to quickly add a variety of reliable WAN interfaces to our products as customer requirements arise, in this case SDH," said Joe Quinlivan, Vice President of Engineering at Telica. "When proven products are available, utilizing off- the-shelf technology allows us to focus internal resources on further development of our core, differentiating technology. Agere and NComm delivered a complete, standards-based, and highly interoperable solution that has saved Telica time and development costs."