BUSINESS WIRE

October 27, 2003; McLean, Virginia

Isocore today announced the opening of the MPLS 2003 International Conference which will provide a forum for leading MPLS vendors, test equipment manufacturers, and premier ISPs to showcase next generation MPLS products and services.

"MPLS is fast becoming the pivotal networking standard for an increasingly IP-driven world," said Dave McDysan, engineering fellow at MCI. "As a leader in MPLS deployment and original sponsor of the MPLS conference series, MCI looks forward to this year's world-class agenda of vendors and speakers moving the industry forward."

MPLS 2003 is sponsored by a large number of MPLS equipment vendors including Alcatel, Avici Systems, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Ixia, Juniper Networks, Laurel Networks, Lucent Technologies, Movaz Networks, Navtel Communications, Nortel Networks, Quarry Technologies, Redback Networks, Spirent Communications, Sycamore Networks, and Tellabs. In addition to exhibits from these companies, the conference includes the Nippon Pavilion consisting of Fujitsu, Furukawa, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC, NTT, OKI, and PIL. The conference is also supported by major service providers including AT&T, BellSouth, Cable and Wireless, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Level 3, MCI, and Masergy.

MPLS 2003 includes two full days of technical sessions covering topics such as convergence, OAM, Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, reliability, IP-Optical integration, traffic engineering, service and provisioning, and new MPLS features. This year, the conference is also showcasing a live VPLS network whereby conference attendees will personally become part of a VPLS instance and experience applications such as Internet access, video streaming, and access to conference proceedings as well as recorded sessions over a VPLS network supporting multiple classes of service. MPLS 2003 attendees will access these services by their laptop computers that are connected to PE routers via wireless access points. The VPLS network consists of equipment from Alcatel, Cisco Systems, and Extreme Networks where the connectivity between the PE routers at the conference site and the PE routers at Isocore headquarters is provided by Masergy.

MPLS 2003 will be followed by the 4th Public Interoperability Demonstration which will take place at Isocore's state-of-the-art Internetworking Lab facility in McLean, Virginia. The demo will illustrate MPLS VPN (L2/L3) services running over an intelligent optical domain where connections are established using GMPLS-TE in a multi vendor environment.

A sampling of sponsors' products exhibited at MPLS 2003 includes the Avici QSR, Quarter-rack Scalable Router enabling carriers to converge multiple services such as ATM, frame relay, voice, and IP over their IP/MPLS network.

Cisco Systems will showcase their newly announced "Bandwidth Assured Layer 2 Services" enabling innovative services over IP/MPLS networks and providing a flexible architecture and a smooth migration of voice, video and data for network convergence.

Lucent Technologies will be highlighting the new developments in the Lucent Technologies - Juniper Networks Unified Solutions including the Enhanced IP/MPLS VPN and MPLS Core Solutions.

Alcatel will showcase the Alcatel 7750 Service Router, the industry's first IP/MPLS router designed and optimized for the delivery of advanced Internet and virtual private network (VPN) services.

Extreme Networks will demonstrate interoperability of its H-VPLS implementation with its Black Diamond Ethernet switching platform and showcase its recently announced Extreme Networks Summit 300 WLAN switch that will provide wireless access at the conference.

Juniper Networks will be highlighting its multiservice routing platforms for IP/MPLS networks as well as the Lucent Technologies - Juniper Networks Unified Solutions including the Enhanced IP/MPLS VPN and MPLS core solutions.

Quarry Technologies will be demonstrating the iQ-SMS service creation and management system that enables service providers to easily configure and manage thousands of virtual security services for VPN customers.

Nortel Networks will showcase how it is enabling and delivering revenue-generating services at the edge of an MPLS core network with its Shasta 5000 Broadband Service Node, and how its Passport portfolio of multiservice switches delivers profitable L2/L3 services, while expanding IP and MPLS service capabilities for future growth.

Redback Networks will demonstrate the power of its SmartEdge 400 Router and SmartEdge 800 Router for MPLS and other Layer 2 and 3 VPNs as well as providing and managing dedicated access services and adding other value-added services.

Tellabs will highlight the Tellabs 8800 series Multi-service switch router that can help carriers consolidate different traffic protocols and services onto a single network to simplify operations, cost-effectively migrate frame relay and ATM networks to IP/MPLS, and enabling new data services.

Laurel Networks will showcase the ST200 Service Edge Router that enables service providers to offer any type of data service (including MPLS Layer 2 and IP VPNs, Internet access, broadband, ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet) over a range of interface speeds and access networks from a single platform.

Movaz Networks will be showcasing the RAYexpress optical add/drop multiplexer (DWDM/OADM), scalable metro/regional platform that provides a multitude of service interfaces for small central offices.

Also participating at the exhibits is NTT Network Systems Laboratories demonstrating world's first Multicast MPLS protocol jointly developed with Motorola. The demo will shows various data distributing scenarios over traffic engineered multipoint LSPs. Additionally, NTT, NEC Corporation, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will highlight PIL's activities.

On the test equipment side, Spirent Communications will showcase advanced MPLS and MPLS VPN conformance, performance and functional test technology on the SmartBits and AX/4000 product lines. Navtel Communications Inc. will be showing MPLS VPNs, (Martini and BGP-based 2547bis) as well as GMPLS UNI and NNI test capabilities. Ixia will be demonstrating their 1600T MPLS emulation system capable of simulating up to 10000s of MPLS routes over a variety of network Interfaces, and support for testing services such VPLS, layer 2 Martini VPNs and layer 3 IP VPNs.

For more information about Isocore's Internetworking Lab, MPLS 2003, and next year's MPLS 2004 conference please visit http://www.isocore.com.

Media Contact:
Vincent Dean (703) 556-4939 or vdean@isocore.com