Press Release

Pittsburgh, PA - January 21, 2002 - Laurel Networks, Inc., the first provider of high-performance service edge routers, today announced the Laurel Provisioning System™ (LPS), a powerful integrated service provisioning and management system for ST200™ Service Edge Routers. The LPS is the first Multi-service over MPLS provisioning system for ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet Private Line service and IP VPNs.

The distributed, object-oriented LPS architecture rapidly integrates the ST200 with carrier network equipment and existing OSS applications. Comprehensive LPS customer management, service provisioning, service accounting, SLA management and network planning capabilities add the intelligence required to manage large numbers of services and customers.

"Laurel's ability to offer Multi-service over MPLS distinguishes them in the market and the ease of provisioning offered by the LPS enhances that distinction," said Erik Keith, analyst with Current Analysis. "Carriers expect vendors to offer full-featured element management solutions and the LPS delivers."

"From the beginning, Laurel set out to deliver a complete service solution for carriers, with point and click creation and management of a range of customer services on a single platform," said Steve Vogelsang, vice president and co-founder of Laurel Networks. "The LPS frees carriers from the unreliable CLI-driven management and complex third-party management solutions of IP routers, enabling simple and rapid integration of the ST200 into the network and operations systems."

Powerful Service Provisioning, Accounting, Management and Planning Capabilities

The LPS includes a full spectrum of fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security (FCAPS) management, while adding a powerful suite of features to intelligently manage new and existing customers and services.

· Rapid Service Provisioning provides point-and-click creation and management of all services on ST200 Service Edge Routers, supporting both IP and Layer 2 services on a common platform to evolve carriers to a full-service packet switched network. The LPS dramatically reduces the time required to provision services while eliminating costly configuration errors.

· Customer Aware Management includes customer-focused views for rapid resolution of issues by network operators and a web-based Customer GUI giving customers the power to monitor and provision services.

· Detailed SLA Management includes comprehensive fault management, data collection and resource utilization monitoring to assure SLA guarantees (such as reliability, latency and loss) are met. SLA statistics are gathered and processed by the LPS and delivered to billing and SLA management applications, or viewed on the LPs GUI.

· Real Time Statistics and Service Accounting use a sophisticated, wire-speed counter matrix to collect information on a per-customer and per-class basis as well as sophisticated routing policy to enable profitable new billing models.

· Comprehensive Network Planning Tools include managed device, inventory and available slot reports to assist capacity planning, ordering and inventory control. The extensive utilization data stored on the Accounting Server enables proactive capacity planning.

Distributed, Integrated Carrier-Class Architecture

The object-oriented, distributed LPS seamlessly integrates with existing OSS applications via a comprehensive set of Java, CORBA and XML APIs. The LPS directly manages the ST200 Service Edge Router through an advanced CORBA API, which increases efficiency, reliability and scalability. To enable multiple carrier operators and engineers to work together, LPS GUIs are synched with the ST200 CLI so that all operators share a common view. The LPS Server is fully redundant and scalable through server clustering.

LPS Components

The LPS is comprised of distributed components designed for scalability, reliability and performance. The LPS Server provides event handling, network discovery and provisioning with built-support for service provisioning and management. The LPS Database Server stores data including device models, configuration and security information and historical alarms. The LPS Accounting Server gathers, processes and stores the extensive statistical information required to generate complete accounting, billing and SLA management information. Network operators can manage, provision, and monitor the ST200 using a variety of high-level and detailed views on the Operator GUI, while customers monitor and provision their networks using the Customer GUI.

All LPS components are generally available now. The LPS is currently in trials with multiple service providers.

About Laurel Networks
Laurel Networks is the first provider of high-performance service edge routers designed and developed specifically for the edge of IP/MPLS networks. Laurel's flagship ST200 Service Edge Router includes the combination of features required to deliver high-value IP services, including: high-capacity routing and switching; rich bandwidth management functionality; and high-density, multi-service ports. Laurel Networks was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.laurelnetworks.com.