POLARIS NETWORKS ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF INDUSTRY'S FIRST MULTISERVICE MULTIBAND DIGITAL CROSS-CONNECT SYSTEM (M-DCS)

McLeodUSA chooses the Polaris OMXTM for its scalability, reliability and flexibility

San Jose, CA ,January 20, 2005 - 

Polaris Networks Inc., the leading provider of next-generation cross-connect solutions, announces the general availability of the OMX^TM (Optical Multiservice Multiband Switch) and IntelliOp^TM Center management system - a solution to dramatically reduce capital and operational expenses and enable service providers to gracefully migrate from legacy TDM transport networks to multiservice transport networks. 

The Polaris OMX has been deployed in multiple U.S. service provider networks as a new generation M-DCS that consolidates SONET rings and switches/grooms multiband traffic. Polaris has also demonstrated the SONET data plane and control plane interoperability with several existing SONET ADMs and MSPPs.

The Polaris OMX provides 240Gbps to 2 Tbps of wideband (DS1/VT1.5), broadband (DS3/STS1), and superbroadband (STS-Nc) switching capability with complete DCS OAM&P functions. It also integrates SONET ADM functions and layer 2 protocol adaptation (MPLS, PPP, POS, GFP/X.86, FR, ATM) and packet/flow aggregation functions into a single, consolidated system.

In order for service providers to increase revenues and simplify operations, the Polaris OMX solution automates the end-to-end service provisioning by using a Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) intelligent control plane. This technology reduces service creation and provisioning time from today's weeks or months down to hours or even minutes. IntelliOp Center, a highly scalable management system, allows operation technicians to quickly and efficiently provision services, conduct fault and performance management and administer the security of the entire OMX network.

"Service providers can now cross-connect and groom their DS-1/VT1.5, DS-3/STS-1 and STS-Nc traffic cost effectively across multiple SONET rings or multiple OMX nodes on a system that is scalable, flexible, and reliable." said Ray Kao, Chief Technology Officer of Polaris Networks. "Moreover, Polaris' OMX solution enables wireless and wireline service providers to gracefully & cost effectively migrate to  IP/MPLS based multiservice transport networks to maximize network efficiency & accelerate new service introduction."

With the Polaris OMX, service providers are able to achieve the following benefits:

·          Dramatically reduce capital and operational expenses

·          Simplify the network through system consolidation

·          Improve network scalability, flexibility, and versatility

·          Automate service provisioning

·          Gracefully migrate to "multiservice transport" networks

About Polaris Networks Inc.

Polaris Networks develops new generation optical transport switching systems for metro core networks. From day one, its systems combine optical transport with extensive grooming and switching, managed via a GMPLS-based common control plane.  The company is funded by Redpoint Ventures, Venrock Associates, Advanced Technology Ventures, SToRM Ventures and strategic private investors.  For more information about Polaris Networks, please visit www.polarisnetworks.com.

Polaris Contact: 
Rebecca Darrah. 
rdarrah@polarisnetworks.com   
(408) 284-8053.