Cabletron Continues Leadership in the Layer 3 Switching Market According to Dell'Oro Group; Cabletron's SSR Achieves the Number One Position in Total Layer 3 Port Shipments Worldwide

Business Wire, Feb 17, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

ROCHESTER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2000

Cabletron Systems (NYSE: CS) today announced that for the fourth consecutive quarter, the SmartSwitch Router is number one in market share in the rapidly growing modular Layer 3 switching market. According to the Dell'Oro Group's fourth quarter report, Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router ranks number one in worldwide Layer 3 ports shipped, with 22.9% of the market.

The Dell'Oro Group report, issued today, finds that Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router ranks number one in market share for the period October through December, 1999 in several categories, including:

--Total worldwide ports shipped, Layer 3 modular &fixed (22.9%)

--Total worldwide ports shipped, Layer 3 modular (32.0%)

--Total North American ports shipped, Layer 3 modular (31.2%)

--10/100 Ethernet worldwide ports shipped, Layer 3 modular (33.8%)

--10/100 Ethernet North American ports shipped, Layer 3 modular (32.8%)

&uot;Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router continues its rapid growth -- extending its market leadership across the Layer 3 switching market,&uot; said Chris Stix, managing director at SG Cowen and Company. &uot;As the Layer 3 market continues to grow, Cabletron has repeatedly delivered the products and features that customers require. Their leadership position builds a strong foundation for the development of Cabletron's four new subsidiaries -- Riverstone Networks, Enterasys Networks, Aprisma Management Technologies and Global Network Technology Services.&uot;

The &uot;Q4 Shared Hub and LAN Switch Report&uot; ranks all manufacturers in the Layer 3 switch market, including 3Com, Cabletron Systems, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. In the report, the Dell'Oro Group predicts that the Layer 3 market will grow to $8.4 billion by 2004.

&uot;Cabletron's top position in the Layer 3 space validates what our service provider and enterprise customers already know - that these products provide competitive advantage,&uot; said Piyush Patel, CEO and president of Cabletron Systems. &uot;Cabletron's continued leadership in the Layer 3 market serves as a catalyst for rapid growth, both in our service provider subsidiary, Riverstone Networks, and our enterprise-focused subsidiary, Enterasys Networks.&uot;

Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router family is the industry's highest performing, most reliable line of multilayer 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. The SmartSwitch Router is the only Layer 3 switching solution that offers full-function WAN connectivity, eliminating the need for software-based routers.

About Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems is a holding company for four of the most innovative, customer-focused organizations in the telecommunications and networking industry:

Enterasys Networks is the only provider of total network solutions singularly focused on enterprise-class customers. By optimizing enterprise network solutions for e-business applications, and by providing global 24 x 7 service and support, Enterasys provides competitive advantage through IT infrastructure to enterprise customers.

Riverstone Networks is focused on emerging content and infrastructure service provider markets. Starting from the customer premise, ranging across the metro network, into the hosting center and across WAN backbones, Riverstone networking equipment enables an end-to-end, service-rich infrastructure. Its solutions enable service providers to provide enhanced services to customers. Riverstone is focused exclusively on service provider markets - particularly the data center needs of co-location, content hosting and ASPs, as well as the infrastructure needs of ISPs, MSOs and metro network providers.

Global Network Technology Services (GNTS) is one of the largest independent network consulting firms in the world. With consultants in more than 66 locations spanning the globe, GNTS provides network infrastructure solutions that optimize application availability and performance to enterprise and service provider clients.

Aprisma Management Technologies is the leading provider of intuitive multivendor management solutions that meet the service-level requirements of enterprise and service provider customers. Aprisma pioneered the field of intelligent network management in 1990 with the introduction of its flagship SPECTRUM software suite. With support for a rapidly growing list of over 500 products from the industry's leading network and telecommunications vendors, Aprisma is at the forefront in integrated network and service-level management.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a decade under the symbol CS, Cabletron is an S& 500 index company. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at www.cabletron.com.