MDI Introduces eyeD Expert Professional Services for WDM, ROADM Rollouts; Kaveh Hushyar Joins mdi Advisory Board

Business Wire, June 23, 2009

New Service Provides Expertise, Reports for Link Commissioning, Fault Diagnosis, Fiber Characterization

NICE, France -- mdi (Monitoring Division Inc.), the leader in real-time network intelligence, announced today it has initiated a new professional service called eyeD Expert, based on its unique ‘eyeD 360’ in-service monitoring tool and in-house expertise, to help carrier customers with immediate support for WDM and ROADM network rollouts.

“eyeD Expert grew out of urgent carrier requests in multiple markets worldwide,” said mdi CEO David Wright. “We’ve gotten calls from teams doing high-priority new link commissioning, asking us to come on-site and help assess fiber system readiness for a variety of bit rates and formats. And we can do this with a single device, monitoring multiple impairments. This is a game changing offering, compared to the current mode of operation that requires taking down traffic or using multiple test-sets.” Mr. Wright added that “Carriers with aging fiber infrastructure can also benefit from this service to address intermittent problems or increasing incidence of errors. Our eyeD Expert team can deliver a live debrief with the network technicians.”

On a related note, the company has recruited Kaveh Hushyar, former Senior Vice President, Network Planning & Engineering for AT&T, to its advisory board. Under his leadership, AT&T established a blueprint for the transformation of its global network to a Concept-Of-One IP/MPLS network. Mr. Hushyar was also responsible for planning the migration of SONET architectures to WDM-based facilities. “mdi can fulfill a tremendous market need with this new service capability,” noted Hushyar. “I am very bullish about the company’s overall opportunity, but the ‘eyeD Expert’ offering also brings a critical infusion of know-how to help carriers migrate from their well-known SONET diagnostics to the brave new world of IP over WDM fiber characterization. I’m quite eager to bring my insights and experience to this domain.”

The eyeD Expert service covers the same impairments and performance factors as mdi’s recently-launched eyeD 360 network appliance, the only product available on the market to simultaneously provide power level, OSNR, CD and PMD monitoring on live optical networks. Since there is no need to take down traffic on operating circuits, the service and the device are perfectly suited to analysis of links already in operation.

At the customer’s choice mdi will deploy the device, and either dispatch an expert technician from the US or Australia to the field or offer remote consultation to the field personnel. mdi customers, both those using the eyeD 360 device and those contracting the eyeD Expert service, benefit from access to mdi’s growing database of fiber characterization profiles. The company is also working with its users to configure additional customer services, under the umbrella brand of ‘mdi services.’

The eyeD Expert service is available to any requesting carrier starting in June 2009, with one-week lead time. Standard fees are applicable, including equipment rental, support for reporting, training and consultation.

mdi will exhibit eyeD 360 at the WDM & Next Generation Optical Networking Conference at the Nice Acropolis Centre on June 22-25, 2009, in exhibit booth 11. Olivier Jerphagnon, mdi VP Marketing and Business Development, will also join representatives from Tier-1 system vendors in a panel discussion on Wednesday, June 24, titled “Optical networking debate - A strategic assessment of the key developments in next generation optical networks and the business opportunities that they present to service providers.”

About mdi

mdi was created to fill critical gaps in network diagnostic tools for carriers migrating from SONET to IP over Optics, and to lay the groundwork for smart optical infrastructure. mdi’s in-service monitoring software is the first to provide real-time insight into fiber networks. The company’s tools let telecom systems vendors, carriers and technicians quickly and cost-effectively characterize fiber assets for network migration to 40G , easily find impairments and continuously manage high-speed networks. Founded in 2007, mdi (Monitoring Division, Inc.) has offices in Sunnyvale, California and Melbourne, Australia. For more information, visit www.monitoringdivision.com.