SAN JOSE, Calif., May 15, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- ONI Systems Corp. (Nasdaq:ONIS), a leading provider of optical telecommunications equipment for metropolitan and regional markets, today announced the ONWAVE(tm) SONET/SDH Framed Data Add/Drop Multiplexer (SFDADM) for the ONLINE2500 optical edge service platform. Designed to overcome the wide area network (WAN) limitations for data protocols, such as Fibre Channel (FC), FICON and Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), the new ONWAVE card enables service providers and enterprises to interconnect storage area networks (SANs) and Ethernet local area networks (LANs) over thousands of kilometers via the existing global SONET/SDH infrastructure.
"With the new ONWAVE SONET Framed Data ADM, carriers will be able to add profitable enterprise services to their networks easily and rapidly," said Jianhui Zhou, vice president of Product Management, ONI Systems. "We are seeing a strong interest from our customers in connecting SAN islands cost-effectively across the WAN using our ONLINE2500 platform. By multiplexing Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet services into an OC-48/STM-16 SONET/SDH envelope -- which can transparently transport these services across any vendor's network or over coarse WDM wavelengths -- our customers can maximize bandwidth utilization and leverage their existing infrastructure. This new card demonstrates our commitment to maintaining our leadership in the storage internetworking market."
The wide area SONET/SDH infrastructure was not originally designed to transport gigabit data storage and transport protocols (i.e. FC, FICON, or GbE), making it difficult to extend these protocols beyond the local area. In addition, the conversion of GbE to SONET using packet-over-SONET (PoS) technology did not satisfy the low latency and high security requirements of demanding storage applications. The ONWAVE SFDADM overcomes these limitations by multiplexing two FC or FICON services, two GbE services, or one FC/FICON service plus one GbE service, onto a SONET/SDH framed OC-48c/STM-16c wavelength. These services can be individually added or dropped at any node throughout the network. This enables service providers and enterprises to leverage their existing global SONET/SDH infrastructure to transport the data protocols with minimal latency and maximum security.
Fibre Channel, the most prevalent network protocol for SANs, has until now been limited to interconnections under 150 kilometers, beyond which its throughput begins to degrade. Now, with the new ONWAVE ADM and its built-in distance buffering technology, Fibre Channel can be transported, for the first time, with its native gigabit throughput over thousands of kilometers, while retaining the full functionalities of native Fibre Channel fabrics.
Concurrent with the introduction of these ONLINE2500 enhancements, ONI announced that the ONLINE2500 optical edge service platform has been tested and qualified as interoperable through the Brocade Fabric Aware program. Brocade has qualified the ONLINE2500 platform across its 1 and 2 Gbps products, including the SilkWorm(r) 2400, SilkWorm 2800, and SilkWorm 3800. Together, the companies are committed to offering the most advanced networking solutions for business continuity.
The ONWAVE SFDADM and the ONLINE2500 are generally available today and will be shown at SUPERCOMM 2002. For sales inquiries, please call (408) 965-2742 or send an e-mail to sales@oni.com.
About the ONLINE2500 Optical Edge Services Platform
The ONLINE2500 transport platform extends high bandwidth services from bandwidth rich core metro networks directly to end-users at the bandwidth starved network edge. The platform utilizes coarse WDM (CWDM) technology to provide multi-wavelength capability, supporting up to 8 protected or 16 unprotected wavelengths per ring. The wide wavelength spacing of CWDM technology significantly relaxes component tolerances and drives down costs. The ONLINE2500 combines multi-wavelength transport with managed wavelength services and multi-service grooming in a compact, modular, 2-rack unit (2RU) chassis. In addition, it provides rate and protocol-tunable interfaces with digital wrapper technology. These interfaces can be throttled to service rates between 100 Mbps and 2.5 Gbps and provide comprehensive performance monitoring capability.
About ONI Systems
ONI Systems (Nasdaq:ONIS) develops, markets and sells optical networking equipment specifically designed to address bandwidth and service limitations of regional and metropolitan networks. Our products allow communication service providers to rapidly build high-capacity networks that are flexible, scalable and able to support multiple services on a single platform. ONI's headquarters is located at 5965 Silver Creek Valley Road, San Jose, CA 95138. For additional information about ONI and its products, visit the company Web site at www.oni.com.
ONI Systems, ONI, the ONI logo, ONLINE, OPTX, OLMP and ONWAVE are trademarks or registered trademarks of ONI Systems Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our limited operating history which makes forecasting our future revenue and operating results difficult, unfavourable economic and market conditions which could cause our existing and potential customers to delay or forgo purchases of our products, risks associated with our proposed merger with CIENA Corporation, our ability to develop and to achieve market acceptance of new products, our dependence on a small number of customers and our ability to add additional customers. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in ONI Systems' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including ONI Systems' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and other documents on file with the SEC.