SASALIRA ANNOUNCES FIRST INTELLIGENT ETHERNET PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR BUSINESSES

US Signal Conducts Trials of Salira's Systems Running Native Mode TDM and IP-centric Broadband Services.

Santa Clara, CA, May 29, 2002
Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc., a leading provider of optical access systems, today announced the Salira 2000 Platform, the industry's first intelligent Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) platform for Fiber-to-the-Business (FTTB) to combine support for native-mode TDM services and IP-centric broadband services. The Salira 2000 Platform is the first EPON system with the intelligence to enable customized Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and real-time dynamic bandwidth allocation on an individual subscriber basis.

"The Salira 2000 Platform gives service providers a simpler, more cost-effective way of providing existing TDM-based services to businesses," said Herb Martin, Salira's CEO. "Our unmatched ability to reduce the total life cycle cost of delivering legacy services is coupled with a seamless migration path to the IP-centric services that will clearly rise in demand in the future. Service providers will be in a position to enhance existing business models, and grow new services as their markets evolve."

Until now, PON devices have been limited in their ability to deliver services to business customers. First-generation PON solutions were based on complex, costly and bandwidth-limiting ATM technology. Residential EPON solutions have focused on delivering consumer-oriented services via Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), mostly in the context of greenfield developments, and absent requirements for QoS or flexible SLAs.

In contrast, the Salira 2000 Platform leverages Ethernet's simplicity and scalability to reduce the cost of provisioning broadband services to businesses. The platform, which is designed to carrier-class standards, supports both native-mode TDM services and IP-centric multi-services. Salira supports legacy TDM services by transporting TDM traffic in its native protocol over dedicated bandwidth without any protocol encapsulation, conversion or translation. In this way, service providers are able to maintain their revenue from traditional services.

The platform's unique distributed intelligence architecture enables service providers to deliver customized services to meet the specific needs of individual customers. The Salira 2000 Platform delivers customized bandwidth to individual customers by enabling differing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at the customer port level. For IP-based services, the platform allocates bandwidth in real time to meet actual customer demand according to class of service parameters and robust QoS.

US Signal Conducts Trials of the Salira 2000 Platform

Salira also announced that US Signal is conducting trials of the Salira 2000 Platform in US Signal's Midwest facilities. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US Signal is seeking a cost-effective and simplified method of connecting its business customers to the metro and long-haul capacity that it has deployed and lit throughout the region.

"We have long-haul and metro networks in place, but an affordable last mile access link is a missing element in our end-to-end network," said Barry Raterink, president of US Signal. "The Salira 2000 Platform's flexibility in scaling bandwidth and services according to individual customer need is critical. We ruled out APON as an access technology, because the world is moving to more cost-effective and flexible IP/Ethernet solutions."

The Salira 2000 Platform

The Salira 2000 Platform consists of the Salira 2500, the industry's highest port density optical line terminal, and the Salira 2300, the first multi-customer, optical network unit. The platform is driven by the Salira Access Operating System, and it is provisioned and managed by the Salira Access Management system.

The Salira 2500 resides in the service provider's head end, central office or point-of-presence, and it is connected to multiple Salira 2300s on the customer side via a passive optical splitter to form a point-to-multipoint network. Designed to meet the stringent requirements of a carrier environment, the 2500 offers the highest port density and greatest line card flexibility in the industry. Each 2500 supports up to 14 optical line cards or PON circuits. Each optical line card can support 16 Salira 2300s that can range up to 20 kilometers from the 2500, a coverage area that exceeds 95 percent of all carrier-served locations. When fully-configured, a Salira 2500 can support a maximum of 5,376 ports, the highest port density available.

The Salira 2300 is the first multi-customer optical network unit capable of distributing services to multiple customers, unlike existing solutions that require a separate device for each customer. The Salira 2300 is modular in design and is configured with eight fixed 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports and two bays for modular plug-ins. One plug-in is configured with eight 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports, and another contains four T1/E1 ports. Therefore, the Salira 2300 can be configured to deliver 24 Fast Ethernet ports, or 16 Fast Ethernet ports and 4 T1/E1 ports, or 8 Fast Ethernet ports and 8 T1/E1 ports.

The Salira 2300 enables service providers to deliver uniquely-defined SLAs to individual customers at the port level based on pre-defined class of service parameters. This creates new revenue generating opportunities from differentiated services, and helps reduce churn by increasing customer satisfaction.

Salira Access Operating System v1.0

The Salira Access Operating System is the software engine that drives the Salira 2000 Platform, providing a consistent method of providing service. The Salira Access Operating System manages both TDM traffic in native mode, and packet-based IP traffic in multi-protocol modes. In the operating system, the Device Abstraction Layer (DAL) interfaces with device drivers, laser control and processors, while the Service Abstraction Layer (SAL) provides the tools needed to deliver a given service. Both the DAL and the SAL are modular, enabling the addition of new speeds, interfaces and services as required.

Salira Access Management v1.0

Salira Access Management is an innovative software suite that combines an Element Management System (EMS) with robust service creation and subscriber management capabilities in one unified system. This integrated system enables remote provisioning, monitoring, troubleshooting and network maintenance. In addition, Salira Access Management provides the ability to control key features like real time dynamic bandwidth allocation and per port SLAs. The Java-based system simplifies the management of the network, and provides complete fault identification, configuration, accounting, performance and security (FCAPS) tools. The system also supports service provider OSS access through CORBA, TL1 or SNMP interfaces.

Pricing and Availability

Salira is scheduling trials that will continue through the summer, with general availability occurring in the third quarter of 2002. Pricing for the Salira 2000 Platform ranges from $90,000 to $2 million for an IP/TDM combination system, and from $60,000 to $1.5 million for a pure IP system. Specific pricing is dependent on the exact configuration of the system.

Product Unveiling at SUPERCOMM 2002

Salira will unveil the Salira 2000 Platform for the first time at SUPERCOMM 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia from June 4-6 (booth #22416). Salira will demonstrate the platform's technical capabilities, like real time dynamic bandwidth allocation and native mode TDM services, in addition to the economic case that service providers can expect to derive from implementing the system.

About US Signal
US Signal is a full-service, fiber optic solutions provider, offering a wide range of telecommunications services to wholesale and enterprise customers throughout Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The US Signal debt-free, fiber optic network is the largest, fully deployed network in the Midwest and offers 2,500 miles of lit fiber and 14 strategic metro rings. US Signal offers unlimited high-speed capacity, dark fiber and collocation services, and also works with customers to design and build new network construction projects. For more information visit www.ussignalcom.com.

About Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Salira builds broadband systems that are used to deliver advanced voice, video and data services to business and residential customers. Salira’s systems give carriers the ability to offer traditional TDM services and advanced IP-based broadband services in one integrated, cost-effective system. Salira Shanghai, Ltd., a subsidiary of Salira, performs manufacturing, R&D and customer support functions, and has responsibility for marketing and sales in the Asia Pacific region.