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Lynx Launches LightLEADER Plug-n-Play Optical Switch Line

Posted on: Wednesday, 9 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 9, 2003--Lynx Photonic Networks (www.LynxPN.com), the leading photonic switch company, with its own patented planar lightwave circuit (PLC) switching and light management technology, today announced the LightLEADER(TM) family of plug-n-play photonic switches. Lynx also disclosed that its LightLEADER has been running in a live U.S. government-sponsored experimental transparent optical network known as ATDNet.

ATDNet interconnects several government networking research testbeds and has nodes located in the Washington, D.C., area, including the Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences (LTS) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). In ATDNet, LightLEADER is currently multicasting 720 progressive scan uncompressed HDTV and ATM/SONET signals transmitted from the NRL to various network elements at the LTS. ATDNet is a transparent all-optical test network that has many research activities and interests designed to evaluate general areas of research in a live networking environment.

LightLEADER is a small optical communications system built around Lynx's patented intelligent optical switch fabrics. LightLEADER minimizes the risk and cost associated with both testbed and live production optical applications. LightLEADER switches any optical path or fiber to any other; is data-rate and format independent and can be configured as strictly non-blocking; and can dynamically tap optical lines for monitoring or security intrusion. Moreover, it is extremely flexible and can be used in many other application environments. LightLEADER comes with an intuitive GUI that is hosted on a PC locally, or remotely via an Ethernet connection. LightLEADER can be tailored to manage most port-to-port connectivity requirements, including broadcasting, distance-tuned multicasting, dynamic wavelength switching and tapping. The built-in attenuation management is useful for applications that require equalization in amplified networks. LightLEADER offers broad applications capability, including:

-- Advanced fiber management

-- Wavelength management

-- Optical test access

-- Revertive intelligent protection switching

-- Network restoration management

-- Dynamic multicast and broadcast for video applications

-- Optical SAN protection and mirroring

-- Dynamic reconfigurability for static OADMs

-- "Intrusion" tapping for security applications.

LightLEADER's switching and path management technology is solid state, which means it contains no moving parts. LightLEADER has survived reliability tests, performed by an independent test laboratory under live operation, that included heating past 130 degrees centigrade, freezing to minus 90 degrees centigrade, and vibration testing to 26gRMS -- exceeding that of a fighter jet at maximum G-force.

"PLC-based photonic switching enables reliable, affordable, efficient, point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint optical networks," said Michael Leigh, president and co-founder of Lynx Photonic Networks. "These networks permit data rate, format and protocol independence and allow for rapid upgrade and deployment of new equipment and services. We are excited by these accomplishments in a live network setting thus far and will be providing more information on our LightLEADER product family as it rolls out to new customers."

About Lynx Photonic Networks

Lynx is a leading photonic communications subsystems company with its own patented switching and light management technology. The company is headquartered in Southern California. Its supply chain is dual-sourced in Europe and the U.S. through leading multi-billion dollar, world-class manufacturing partners. Customer support is provided worldwide. Investors and strategic partners include ADC Telecommunications, Goldman Sachs, HarbourVest Partners, Infineon Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Telesoft, and Walden Ventures. Lynx is well financed for the long term and is positioned for market leadership in the emerging photonic switching market.

The company's corporate U.S. headquarters are at 26775 Malibu Hills Road, Calabasas Hills, CA 91301. For more information, phone 818/878-7500 or visit www.LynxPN.com.

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