NEW COMPANY TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO IP/ETHERNET-BASED BROADBAND SERVICES

Salira's next-generation systems combine Ethernet with optics to deliver breakthroughs in carrier equipment efficiency and affordability.

San Jose, CA May 23, 2001
Addressing the need for carriers to provide affordable, high-speed access to the Internet, Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc. debuted today. Led by a highly-credentialed team experienced in delivering carrier-class products, Salira will develop systems that combine the simplicity and popularity of Ethernet with the power of optics to provide the first carrier-class, IP/Ethernet optical solution for high-speed Internet access.

"By extending Passive Optical Networks (PONs) to Gigabit Ethernet, the Salira system fills a need for carriers to deliver cost-effective and fast Internet access," said Marian Stasney, senior analyst at the Yankee Group. "The Salira solution goes beyond the standard EPON offering by adding intelligence at both the customer and service provider ends, enabling flexible and customizable SLA reporting at each node. The Salira team has designed an IP/Ethernet optical system that service providers will find attractive as they build out their existing infrastructures to generate additional revenues from voice, video and data services."

Salira's systems represent order-of-magnitude improvements in affordability, performance, scalability and flexibility. Salira's fiber-fast access products are expected to dramatically reduce equipment costs to less than $500 per user, while the point-to-multipoint architecture will ensure equipment scalability for carrier networks. In addition, Salira's systems will provide maximum flexibility by enabling carriers to easily provision new, personalized value-added voice, video and data services. The products are expected to be in customer trials with carriers by the second-half of this year.

Heading up Salira are executives and technologists with an unmatched pedigree from the leading networking, access equipment and service provider companies that have fundamentally shaped the development of the Internet. The team is led by Chairman of the Board David House, renowned for his leadership at Intel, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks and most recently Allegro Networks; CEO Herb Martin, an early IP pioneer and a seasoned executive of both start-up and public companies such as Ericsson, ESS Technology, Onyx and The Wollongong Group; and CTO and Co-Founder Wei Gao, a veteran of Nortel's Bell Northern Research unit and developer of the first OC-192/SONET product.

"The infrastructure that makes up the Internet today is basically flawed - technical and economic barriers impede access for the vast majority of users whose options have been limited to DSL and broadband cable. Neither approach was ever meant for mass usage. This is made even more frustrating because the speed and the capacity everyone wants is there for the taking," said Herb Martin, Salira's president and CEO.

"At Salira, we're solving this with an approach suited to the whole problem of delivering affordable, virtually instant access for millions of users to the fiber-optic cable already in place. We're excited and confident that a solution is, at last, at hand. We intend to deliver nothing less than 'the missing link of the Internet Age.'"

The Salira System: Designed From-the-Ground-Up to Combine IP/Ethernet Plus Optics

Unlike current offerings, Salira is designing a system from the ground up to accommodate IP/Ethernet, the format in which virtually all data traffic originates. The Salira technical team has already developed a number of IP/Ethernet patent-pending technologies that will comprise its new system.

Salira's proprietary hardware is integrated with value-added, software-based services to meet key carrier-class requirements, such as guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), first-class security for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), enforceable Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and Multi-Protocol Transport. The system's unique distributed network processor architecture and software will allow service providers to deliver value-added services on a per-port basis, enabling personalization of bandwidth and services to individual customers. In addition, Salira's robust suite of management software will enable remote provisioning and self-provisioning of voice, video and data services.

World-Class Team Experienced in Optical, Data and Telephony Systems.

Salira has attracted a high-caliber team recruited from the who's who of the top networking and telecommunications companies, including AFC, Cisco, Nortel, Marconi, Alcatel, Ericsson and Pacific Bell. The collective experience of the Salira team represents more than 300-years experience in delivering carrier-class systems. The technical management team is led by technology luminaries Dr. Jian Song, who serves as Salira's vice president of hardware, and Rick Li, vice president of software engineering. A former academician and Nortel engineer, Song has developed technical innovations in such areas as high-speed interconnections, low-cost optical parallel interconnections and optical cross-connect switching core. Li has developed several commercially successful products for Stratacom, Nortel and Cisco, where he was the key architect for their multi-service Gigabit ATM switch platform.

Also serving on Salira's board are Gwong-Yih Lee, originally founder of Transmedia Corporation and currently a senior director at Cisco, and K.T. Wan, vice president of Vertex Management.

Finally, the team is rounded out by a stellar Technical Advisory Board that includes: Tony Scott, CTO, General Motors; Dana D'Easy, CIO, Siemens Worldwide; Dr. Xiaolin Lu, VP Strategic Engineering & IP Network, AT&T Broadband; and Heidi Heiden, CEO of Zephion Corporation.

Leveraging The Popularity of Ethernet to Address the Exploding Internet Access Demands.

Although Ethernet is present on some 95% of all desktops, ATM has historically been the transport medium of choice for delivering broadband services to the local access market, despite ATM's high-cost and complexity. The Salira team recognized the bandwidth, service provisioning and cost advantages of Ethernet, and that most data traffic is originated in IP/Ethernet format, and designed an integrated system that leverages the inherent advantages of IP/Ethernet and optics.

Leading research firm Gartner/Dataquest estimates that spending in the broadly defined access systems market will soar to more than $20 billion by 2003. While much of the investment has been in the long-haul and metro-ring segments of the market, service providers have struggled to identify winning technologies in the access segment of the market. Salira believes that the combination of excess capacity in the long-haul and metro segments and the lack of investment in the access segment represents a significant opportunity. By reducing cost and complexity, the Salira IP/Ethernet-based systems will provide a compelling solution for carriers to build-out their broadband access services, meeting the explosive demands for bandwidth by both businesses and consumers.

While Salira's hybrid technology makes its system equally suitable for business and residential customers, initial deployments of the solution are targeted at the business market, where there is an abundance of fiber available and the need for fiber-fast access is most critical.

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.