Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router is Number One in Layer 3 Modular Switching According to Dell'Oro Group

Business Wire, Nov 18, 1999

ROCHESTER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1999--

Cabletron Achieves Number One Position for Third Consecutive

Quarter with 31.6% Market Share

Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS) today announced that its award-winning SmartSwitch Router is the worldwide market share leader in the rapidly growing modular Layer 3 switching market, according to the Dell'Oro Group. The Dell'Oro Group report, issued today, finds that Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router ranks number one for the period July through September 1999 with 31.6% of the market.

"Cabletron's leading market share demonstrates strength in the Layer 3 switching market. They are the leader in chassis-based ports shipped, with year-over-year growth of more than 350%. Layer 3 switching is the fastest growing segment of the enterprise market, and Cabletron is poised to benefit directly from the strong forecast for this market." said Paul Johnson, senior communications/networking analyst at Robertson Stephens.

The "Q3 Shared Hub and LAN Switch Report" ranks all manufacturers in the Layer-3 switch market, including 3Com, Cabletron Systems, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. The report found that Cabletron held the number one market share position with 31.6% of the market. This represented a dramatic 4% increase in market share over last quarter. In addition, Cabletron holds the number-one position in the modular WAN category, with a commanding 96.6% market share, based on ports shipped.

"This is the third consecutive quarter that Cabletron has achieved the number one market share position for modular Layer 3 switching," said Andrew Feldman, senior director of worldwide product marketing at Cabletron Systems. "The consistently high market penetration of the SmartSwitch Router demonstrates Cabletron's success at providing our customers and partners with best-of-breed networking solutions."

The SmartSwitch Router family continues to earn recognition for its industry-leading performance and functionality, including Internet Week Magazine's "Best of Breed" Award in May 1999 and "Product of the Year" from Network Magazine in May 1999.

Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router family is the industry's highest performing, most reliable line of multi-layer switch routers, delivering more than 30 million packets-per-second (pps) of routed throughput and full-function, wire-speed IP and IPX routing and switching. Also, the SmartSwitch Router is one of the only Layer 3 switching solutions that offers full-function WAN interfaces in addition to Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet.

About Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems, a premier provider of world-class networking solutions, delivers reliable network access and communications to millions of people worldwide. With scalable products designed for Global 1000 enterprise networks, service providers and small businesses, Cabletron is the e-business communications specialist in the Internet economy. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a decade under the symbol CS, Cabletron is an S&P 500 index company. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at www.cabletron.com.