SALIRA ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF IEEE 802.3ah STANDARDS-BASED GE-PON PRODUCT LINE

Salira 3000 Series First Standards-based EPON product to Receive MII Certification

SANTA CLARA – OCTOBER 13, 2005 – Salira Systems, Inc., the leading provider of Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON) systems, today announced General Availability of the Salira 3000 Series, the company’s standards-based product line based on the IEEE 802.3ah protocols for Ethernet PON (EPON). The Salira 3000 Series offers full capability to deliver standards-based EPON services. Salira is using market-leading Teknovus chipsets in the Salira 3000 Series.

"The Salira 3000 Series makes it easy for carriers to deploy systems quickly and economically to meet increased customer demand," said Yanming Liu, CEO of Salira Systems, Inc. "We are seeing strong interest in our new products from carriers around the world."

In conjunction with the product announcement, Salira announced that the Salira 3000 Series is the first EPON product based on the IEEE 802.3ah standard to receive certification from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in China. The MII is responsible for performing rigorous testing of telecommunications equipment. MII certification means that a vendor’s products are approved for deployment in China’s vast communications networks. Salira’s proprietary Salira 2000 Platform also enjoys MII certification.

The 3000 Series consists of the Salira 2550 Optical Line Terminal (OLT), the Salira 3345 Optical Network Unit (ONU) and the Salira 3350-S ONU. Services are provisioned and maintained by Salira’s best-in-class network management system known as SAM (Salira Access Management).

The footprint of the Salira 2550 has been greatly reduced from the earlier Salira 2500 such that 4 devices can be installed in a standard 7 foot rack, conserving valuable Central Office space. There are 2 redundant System Controller Cards that control the service line cards. Up to 14 GE-PON Optical Line Cards each delivering two symmetrical Gigabit Ethernet PON links can be installed in the unit to support standards-based services. Each PON link can support up to a 1 to 64 split ratio. Alternately, up to 8 TDM Line Cards supporting OC-3/STM-1 or T1/E1 service can be installed in the unit, with the remaining 6 slots delivering Gigabit Ethernet service.

On the customer premises side, Salira introduced two new standards-based ONUs. The Salira 3345 is a flexible CPE device that is designed to deliver standards-based Ethernet and/or traditional TDM services to end-users in MTU and MDU environments. The device has 2 pluggable slots to support any combination of modular plug-ins: 8 port 10/100BaseT, 8 port DMT VDSL, or 8 port T1/E1. The Salira 3350-S is an extremely compact CPE device designed to deliver standards-based Fast Ethernet services to individual businesses and residences. The device has a 2 Fast Ethernet ports, and measures 6.5 inches wide by 4.5 inches high.

Salira is offering a robust migration path for its existing customers. Customers using the proprietary Salira 2000 Platform can add Salira 3000 line cards to existing hardware to deliver standards-based services via standards-based CPE devices. The Salira Access Management (SAM) system can simultaneously manage proprietary and standards-based services.

Salira also announced that it will be exhibiting the Salira 3000 Series for the first time at the PT Expo trade show in Beijing, China from October 18-22 (Beijing international Exhibition Center, Hall 2, Booth #2C17). Salira will also demonstrate the platform’s category-leading technical capabilities in a technical seminar on October 20, from 2:00PM to 4:00PM in General Service Building, Seminar Room 203.

About Salira Systems, Inc.
Based in Santa Clara, California, Salira is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Communication Technologies, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. Salira builds Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON) systems that are used to deliver traditional TDM services and advanced IP-based broadband services (voice, video and data) to business and residential customers. For more about the company, visit http://www.salira.com.