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CIENA's MultiWave EdgeDirector™ 500 Brings High-Bandwidth Services to the Last Mile

Next-Generation Multi-Service Transport Platform Integrated into CIENA LightWorks™ Optical Network Architecture

Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) today announced that the Omnia AXR 500 multi-service transport platform is integrated into the Ciena LightWorks™ architecture and that the company has renamed the product the MultiWave EdgeDirector™ 500.

Ciena's LightWorks architecture now offers bandwidth and intelligence at three key points in the telecommunications infrastructure, allowing service providers and their end-users to overcome legacy voice network constraints. The three areas include optical transport, reached through MultiWave CoreStream™ and MultiWave Metro™; intelligent core switching via MultiWave CoreDirector™; and, now the ability to harness core fiber capacity and deliver it as last mile services through the MultiWave EdgeDirector.

"At last, there's light at the edge of the network," said George Peabody, managing director of Aberdeen's Service Provider Practice. "Bandwidth is moving from metro rings into customer locations. Ciena's Multiwave EdgeDirector 500 makes light perform for carriers, ISPs and their subscribers. If traffic growth is going to touch raw carrier capacity, optical bandwidth must reach customer buildings to satisfy the demand inside. The MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 releases that last mile chokehold to enable carriers to deliver right-sized bandwidth and flexible services from a single network element."

Already in beta trials with several customers and with commercial availability expected in the third calendar quarter, Ciena's MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 is a next-generation multi-service transport platform that combines the functions of traditional transport equipment with advanced data networking. The MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 utilizes packet and cell technology to enable service providers to cost effectively deliver traditional voice and new high-speed data services over a single optical network.

"Network operators need to convert high-bandwidth transport services from the core of their networks to value-added services at the edge, or local access point," said Michael Champa, president of Ciena's Access Systems Division. "The MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 provides an integrated solution that extends Ciena's optical transport and core switching products, and allows network operators to offer legacy voice and new high-speed data services across an end-to-end intelligent optical network."

The MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 supports a wide range of applications, including multi-service (voice, data, and digital private line) transport over fiber optic rings, DSLAM concentration for converting TDM and IP traffic to ATM for transport over backbone networks, ATM Service Access Multiplexing to adapt and concentrate voice, data, and private line services for delivery to an ATM switching system, and TDM grooming for transporting voice calls over core carrier networks.

Ciena acquired the MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 with the purchase of Omnia Communications on July 1, 1999. Ciena's LightWorks architecture is an industry-first blueprint for implementing next-generation optical networks, and was launched in mid-March when the company announced its plans to acquire both Lightera Networks (now Ciena's Core Switching Division) and Omnia Communications (now Ciena's Access Systems Division).