Avici Systems Announces Next Step in Bandwith Flexibility Strategy Through Participation in ODSI - joins the Optical Domain Service Interconnect coalition for optical-network standards - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Jan 17, 2000

Avici Systems, Inc., (www.avici.com) developer of the first terabit switch/router, Wednesday announced its participation in the newly created Optical Domain Service Interconnect (ODSI) coalition bringing service providers and networking vendors together to drive the creation of all-optical networks. Avici will work with leading companies such as Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR), who founded the ODSI initiative, to enable service providers to establish a new generation of Internet applications and services, including end-to-end dynamic provisioning and restoration across data and optical layers.

Avici recently introduced its flexible bandwidth strategy enabling carriers to more tightly couple routers with emerging optical networks. As part of this strategy, Avici will work with the ODSI group to collaborate with key optical vendors to define open interfaces between the optical and electrical layers of the network.

"Avici's participation in the ODSI initiative is yet another step towards making the all-optical Internet a reality. We are excited to be a part of ODSI to help establish open benchmarks for the rapidly evolving marketplace," said Surya Panditi, president and chief executive officer of Avici Systems. "We bring advanced technologies optimized for superior quality of service and the required redundancy needed to support mission-critical applications of the future."

The purpose of the ODSI initiative is to support and drive open protocol development and interoperability testing between the optical domain and higher-layer service domains and protocols, such as the Avici Terabit Switch/Router (TSR ). The ongoing explosion of data traffic and the mass adoption of broadband access technologies, such as cable modems and high-speed digital phone lines, is driving the market to develop equipment to create, amplify, route and switch wavelengths of light that carry a limitless supply of digital equipment.

The only working terabit switch/router in the market today, Avici's TSR is a highly reliable platform capable of path protection, hitless software upgrades and highly available hardware. While other products plan to offer redundancy, the TSR goes an order of magnitude further by making the switch fabric itself self-healing. The Avici TSR is built with scalability, flexibility and resiliency to support a vast number of multi-megabit, "always-on" Internet connections and can scale easily from 2.5 gigabits to 6 terabits, providing 300 times more throughput for native TCP/IP-based Internet traffic than existing architectures.

Optical Domain Service Interconnect (ODSI) is an open, industry-wide initiative inaugurated by Sycamore Networks in cooperation with a diverse group of service providers and networking vendors. ODSI represents a coalition of networking professionals with a common interest in selecting, applying and promoting the open interfaces and signaling protocols that will allow higher-layer service networks to effectively interoperate with an evolving and dynamic optical network core. Responding to industry needs, the ODSI coalition represents a collaborative effort to open the interface to the next generation optical network and help drive innovation in service creation and delivery.

Avici Systems, Inc., headquartered in North Billerica, Mass., is the premier global provider of multi-terabit switch/router technology aimed at creating the next generation high-performance, IP-based carrier networks for the 21st century. The company recently shipped its Terabit Switch/Router (TSR ), the industry's first terabit switch router. Avici's patented technology, with superior scalability, resiliency and port density, is enabling the first optical "speed-of-light" Internet backbone and is the ideal choice for worldwide facilities-based carriers and ISPs. Visit Avici's World Wide Website at http://www.avici.com.