Lucent Technologies Reduces Prices of Select Cajun Campus Stackable and Workgroup Ethernet Switches - Brief Article

Cambridge Telcom Report, March 27, 2000

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) Monday announced price reductions on select models of its Cajun Campus stackable and workgroup Ethernet solutions, including the Cajun P333T and the Cajun P120 Workgroup Switch.

At the same time the company also announced the availability of the Cajun P334T Switch in limited quantities, with general availability planned for next month, and that the cost of this switch has also been reduced from its originally announced introduction price.

Effective with these reductions, customers can buy 24 or 48 ports of 10/100 megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet for less than $90 and $100 per port, respectively.

"With their unrivaled functionality, capacity and resiliency features the Cajun Campus stackable and workgroup solutions were already an exceptional value for enterprise customers," noted Martha oung, president of Cutting Edge Information Group, a Golden, Colo.-based research firm. "These price reductions further increase this product line's price/performance leadership position over the competition."

The Models P333T and P334T are two of the four base units that comprise the company's next-generation stackable family, the Cajun P330 Switching System. The P333T provides 24 ports of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity, while the new P334T offers 48 ports. Both models include a front expansion slot that accepts an array of optional modules that can provide 16 additional 10/100 ports, or two fiber Fast Ethernet ports or either one or two Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Additionally, the Cajun P333T and P334T feature an eight gigabits per second (Gbps) Octaplane stacking architecture that supports up to 10 units in a stack that all function, perform and can be managed as a single device with one Internet Protocol (IP) address. As a result, the Model P333T can provide up to 400 10/100 ports, while the new P334T can scale up to 640 10/100 ports in one stack.

With the Cajun P330 family, network managers can build enterprise solutions that easily scale to handle the rapidly changing networking needs of small-to-medium-sized businesses and campuses. Utilizing Lucent's unique Switch Architecture for Extreme Resiliency (SAFER) design, the P330 solutions offer high levels of reliability with no single point of failure.

The P330 line also provides the Quality of Service (QoS) policy support required, from the wiring closet to the backbone, for applications such as e-business, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), mixed media collaboration or streaming video.

The Cajun P120 Workgroup Switch provides 24 ports of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet with a front panel expansion slot that supports a variety of add-on modules, including: either one or two ports of Gigabit Ethernet, or two fiber Fast Ethernet ports or eight ports of 10/100 Ethernet. A four gigabits per second (Gbps) switch fabric enables wire-speed switching.

"The Cajun P330 and P120 family of switches offer customers sophisticated, feature-rich solutions at compelling prices," said Uzi Shneor, vice president of marketing in Lucent's LAN Systems Group. "The port density of our stackable and workgroup offerings provides network managers with the growth potential and versatility they need to stay ahead of the unquenched need for more and more capacity."

By the end of September, Lucent Technologies will spin off its enterprise communications systems, business cabling and LAN-based data networking businesses, including the Cajun Campus solutions, into a separate $8 billion company focused on delivering next-generation communications networks for enterprises. The new company will be the worldwide leader in messaging and call centers, the U.S. leader in voice communications systems and will have the largest sales and services force in the industry.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as optical and wireless networks; Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. FMI: www.lucent.com.