Tellium Announces Delivery of Complete Software Suite for Intelligent Mesh Optical Networks

Business Wire, March 19, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2001

Tellium, Inc., provider of the world's first in-service intelligent optical switches, today announced the delivery of the final piece of its StarNet Software Suite, a versatile software package for creating, optimizing, running, controlling and provisioning optical networks. With the shipment of the StarNet Modeler(TM) to Qwest Communications International, Tellium can now empower carriers with a complete software suite for deploying and running intelligent optical mesh networks.

The StarNet Software Suite consists of the StarNet Operating System(TM), the StarNet Wavelength Management System(TM) and the StarNet Design Tools(TM), including the StarNet Planner(TM) and StarNet Modeler, described below.

"The StarNet Software Suite, combined with Tellium's 512-port Aurora Optical Switch, helps facilitate the rapid development and deployment of intelligent mesh optical networks," said Harry Carr, Tellium's chairman and CEO. "We view this robust software suite as a key differentiator for Tellium."

The StarNet Software Suite allows network engineers to create, optimize, run and control sophisticated optical networks, all from a client workstation. It can trim the several months it currently takes to provision a circuit down to mere minutes and save carriers substantial capital and operating costs.

"With the StarNet Software Suite, Tellium has now delivered on its promise to give carriers the tools they need to plan, optimize and deploy intelligent mesh optical networks," said Chris Nicoll, vice president, Telecom Infrastructure at Current Analysis. "The StarNet Software Suite keeps Tellium at the forefront as a provider of intelligent optical networking solutions."

The StarNet Modeler allows carriers to validate and optimize a network's response to traffic demands for maximum service availability prior to field deployment. It runs as a stand-alone software simulation package that runs on off-the-shelf Windows-based PCs and laptops.

"The StarNet modeling tool is a valuable resource as we build our next-generation optical network," said Mike Perusse, Qwest's senior vice president of engineering and technology. "This software helps us validate our network performance prior to deploying a single switch and without having to buy any additional equipment."

The StarNet Modeler provides dynamic simulation and visualization of restoration and provisioning events and performance, and the ability to analyze dynamic failures and `what-if' scenarios. This intelligent software allows carriers to understand the dynamics of light-path creation, fault occurrence and path restoration in a planned network. The StarNet Modeler generates advanced performance reports that allow carriers to validate their planned network performance prior to deployment, and helps ensure cost-effective network performance, survivability and reliability.

StarNet Modeler is packaged with Tellium's GUI-based optical mesh network planning software tool, the StarNet Planner, which can be used to easily create and plan the optical layer of a carrier network. Using existing network information, sophisticated optimization techniques and "what if" scenarios, StarNet Planner creates the design for wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) routes and optical switch nodes that can lower overall network costs.

With this user-friendly graphical tool, carriers can quickly recognize the economic and operational effects of their architectural choices and determine where to position facilities and equipment to meet demand, site and restoration requirements. With StarNet Planner, carriers can allocate diverse classes of protection services per light-path. This option allows carriers to reap the advantages of mesh network architecture using Tellium's Aurora Optical Switches, offering ring-like restoration performance while replacing or reducing SONET add/drop multiplexers and legacy switch systems.

Optical Fiber Conference Software Demos and OC-192

Tellium will be giving hands-on demos of the StarNet Software Suite at the Optical Fiber Conference in booth # 1266. Additionally, the 512-port Aurora Optical Switch will be on display, demonstrating OC-48/STM-16 and OC-192/STM-64 cross connects.

About Tellium

Tellium, developer of the world's first in-service, intelligent optical switches, delivers high capacity, high density, cost-effective solutions to service providers offering advanced optical services. Using Tellium's Aurora Full-Spectrum(TM) product line, service providers can tame the dramatic growth in network traffic to quickly and reliably deliver services in anticipation of their customers' dynamic bandwidth needs. Founded in 1997 by optical experts from Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies), Tellium is led by a team of industry veterans from top telecommunications and data communications companies worldwide, including Ascend Communications, AT&T, Bay Networks, Cascade, Cisco, Lucent Technologies, MCI, Nortel Networks, Telecordia and Yurie, among others. More information is available at www.tellium.com.