StrataCom and ATMnet Give the Internet a Performance Boost; ATMnet Becomes Industry's First ATM-Based Internet Network Service Provider

Business Wire, June 4, 1996

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 1996--In a deal marking the transformation of the Internet into a high-speed multimedia communications infrastructure, StrataCom today announced that it has been selected by ATMnet to provide high-speed networking equipment for the purpose of building the world's first end to end, ATM-based Internet transport service.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, ATMnet, a San Diego-based Internet network service provider (NSP), plans to purchase up to 15 BPX/AXIS ATM switches. Deployment of these switches throughout the United States is underway.

Worldwide ATM/Internet Rollout

With StrataCom's BPX/AXIS platform, ATMnet is currently offering 155 Mbps (OC3) ATM transport services to some 25 customers throughout California with plans to rollout national and international ATM services by year end. These plans include U.S. service in 12 major metropolitan areas and international expansion to Mexico, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Plans also include increasing backbone speeds to 622 Mbps (OC-12) and 1.2 Gbps (OC-48) when demand dictates.

In addition to ATM Internet transport services, ATMnet is currently providing (California only) native ATM and IP connections at speeds ranging from 4 Mbps to 155 Mbps to corporate customers through their ATM Enterprise Network Service. This service will also be expanded to national and international locations as the network is expanded.

"Unlike any other company, ATMnet was founded on the belief that ubiquitous and predictable Internet service is predicated on a new model for the Internet -- and that model is based on ATM," said Jim Browning, president of ATMnet. "We are really the first company to articulate a connection-oriented vision of the Internet that will truly deliver the ubiquity and service performance that end users are demanding."

ATM Solves Three Growing Problems for ISPs

Browning noted that the implementation of ATM within the Internet's backbone can immediately solve three key problems for Internet service providers -- scalability, performance and reliability -- while paving the way for the introduction of ATM quality of service.

With ATM technology, ATMnet forwards traffic in nanoseconds instead of milliseconds and can provide customers on their networks with high-speed connections to the Internet. Browning noted that the distance of the links is the primary factor when calculating packet transmission times on a wide area network.

ATMnet is also providing a variety of content providers, such as GTE Interactive, General Instruments and Equifax, with value-added services. These include locating customer servers at designated ATMnet Access Centers with direct connections to the ATM network. This results in the elimination of local line costs and increased flexibility from direct connections that can be easily scaled and managed.

"ATMnet's decision to build a high-speed Internet infrastructure based on ATM, along with Pacific Bell's recent integration of ATM within their NAP, clearly signals a strong movement toward a new Internet model," said Peter Alexander, executive director of marketing for StrataCom. "The real challenges facing the evolution of the Internet will be convincing the market that IP traffic over an ATM infrastructure can, and is, being done efficiently."

ATM Platform Selection

According to ATMnet, scalability, congestion control and avoidance and reliability were the key criteria in choosing an ATM Internet platform.

"Traffic management is critical when using ATM to carry IP traffic because retransmission of IP packets can dramatically decrease performance," said Browning. According to ATMnet, the implementation of StrataCom's BPX/AXIS has enabled ATMnet to connect a greater number of customers without impacting performance while reducing cost and complexity.

With ATM, ATMnet can also provide users with direct connections to the backbone. "By bringing ATM to our customers' facility, even to the desktop, we can do what other providers can't, put them on the backbone and eliminate the hierarchical structure imposed by other alternatives," concluded Browning.

StrataCom

StrataCom, Inc. (NASD:STRM), based in San Jose, develops, delivers and supports FastPacket networking systems for ATM applications in private wide area networks and public carrier offerings, such as Internet frame relay and ATM services.

StrataCom's family of products, including IPX(R), IGX(TM), BPX(TM), AXIS(TM), FastPAD(TM), and EdgeConnect(TM), is used to integrate and transport a wide variety of corporate information, including voice, data, video, LANs, image and multimedia traffic in narrowband to broadband ATM network applications.

Visit StrataCom's home page at http://www.stratacom.com.

ATMnet

ATMnet's mission of providing the world's largest and fastest commercially available Internet backbone with the highest level of quality and service is fast becoming a reality. ATMnet(R) exists to address American business' growing need for high-speed data communications bandwidth and Internet access and to help those businesses make effective use of that bandwidth to create new opportunities. The ATM Internet(R) is built using the power of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) equipment and fiber optic circuits. -0-