Exalt Announces New Licensed Gigabit Ethernet Microwave Radio Platform

CAMPBELL, CA--(Marketwire - March 23, 2009) - Exalt Communications (http://www.exaltcom.com), the company that is reinventing microwave backhaul, today announced its new licensed Gigabit Ethernet microwave radio platform featuring the first microwave radio systems in the industry to offer a semi-protected "1.5+0" protection configuration, a cost-effective alternative to traditional 1+1 fully redundant protection deployment. The new EX-i Series GigE long haul systems are a natural next step for operators as they consider migration to LTE, and for utilities and other rights-of-way businesses as they undertake network migration from traditional TDM circuits to IP/Ethernet.

BNSF Railway Company, which operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, is among the first to deploy Exalt EX-i Series GigE radios to support its IT infrastructure, which carries both TDM voice and Ethernet traffic.

"We evaluated the Exalt EX-i Series GigE radio systems against a variety of competitive products by testing RF performance, throughput, latency and packet processing, and found that the Exalt systems best met our needs," said Gary Grissum, BNSF's assistant vice president, Telecommunications. "The Exalt radios also 'future-proof' our network, as more and more of our traffic transitions to IP. We are now using Exalt licensed GigE systems to upgrade our legacy TDM systems to Ethernet on our licensed links, allowing us to better integrate our microwave network into our overall data networking architecture. And the Exalt 1.5+0 feature gives us sufficient reliability without the additional expense of traditional 1+1, a great fit for our Ethernet backbone."

New Semi-Protected 1.5+0 Configuration: Exalt Changes the Game

For decades, customers have had two options for hardware protection: 1+0 (a single, "unprotected" radio) and 1+1 (one radio "protected" by a second, backup radio). Until now, using a 1+1 protection configuration was the only way to ensure continued system availability in the event of hardware failure. This traditional, fully redundant architecture provides protection against all potential failures in the primary radio. This brute force method applies the same level of redundancy to all electronic components and significantly increases the cost of the system, at times up to double, as compared to 1+0 configurations.

In addition to offering the standard 1+0 and 1+1 configurations, the new platform features Exalt Transmit and Receive Availability (EXtra™, a unique internally redundant architecture that offers network designers a semi-protected, "1.5+0" alternative that costs about the same as the conventional 1+0 configuration. The EXtra architecture includes both transmit fail-safe switchover -- providing power amplifier redundancy in the event of primary amplifier failure -- as well as an alternate receive path that allows a second receiver to take over in the event of a failure in the primary receiver.

"We are squarely focused on delivering innovative products to a tradition-bound industry, and we're the only company doing so simultaneously in both the licensed and license-exempt bands," said Amir Zoufonoun, CEO of Exalt Communications. "The world's communications infrastructure is undergoing a transition from TDM to IP, and we are helping enterprises, governments and service providers make the transition as easily as possible by minimizing the pain and maximizing the benefits associated with the deployment of new IP-capable systems, while ensuring the continued performance of remaining TDM circuits."

The all-indoor EX-i Series GigE radios are available immediately for operation in the upper and lower 6 GHz FCC bands. Other popular frequency bands such as 11 GHz FCC and 7 and 8 GHz ETSI with additional SDH interface options will also be available in the near future.

About BNSF

A subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE: BNI), BNSF Railway Company operates one of the largest North American rail networks, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is among the world's top transporters of intermodal traffic, moves more grain than any other American railroad, carries the components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough low-sulfur coal to generate about ten percent of the electricity produced in the United States. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com.

About Exalt Communications

Exalt Communications provides next generation licensed and license-exempt microwave systems to service providers, government organizations and enterprises worldwide. Exalt products are designed to solve the network bottlenecks associated with the growing demand for IP-based voice, data and video applications and the resulting migration from TDM to IP-based networks. With a flexible architecture and technology-agnostic product platform covering multiple market segments, Exalt provides a full range of carrier-class microwave radio systems that meet the demand for cost-effective and flexible alternatives to fiber and leased lines.

www.exaltcom.com

Contact Information: Contact: Pamela Valentine Exalt Communications pvalentine@exaltcom.com 408-871-1804 x351 Liam Rose Sterling Communications for Exalt lrose@sterlingpr.com 415-992-3213