OPNET Announces New Software For Planning MPLS-Enabled Networks
Early Consortium Sponsors Include Cisco, Ericsson, Hyperchip, Marconi, NEC, NTT, QoS Networks, and QwestWASHINGTON, DC -- January 29, 2001 -- OPNET Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPNT), the leading provider of intelligent network management software, today unveiled its plans for new Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) software designed to address advanced network planning and traffic engineering for service provider and enterprise networks.
"MPLS-enabled networks provide a powerful new architecture for managing large volumes of traffic and offering advanced services", said Alain Cohen, President and CTO at OPNET. "Our new MPLS software will allow users to maximize the benefits of deploying MPLS. The software will give network managers visibility into the impact of their traffic engineering strategies, and the ability to set achievable service levels based on quality of service mechanisms."
The architecture of the new software is heavily influenced by a steering group of early sponsors that collaborated with OPNET over the last year. OPNET's MPLS Model Development Consortium includes representatives from Cisco, Ericsson, Hyperchip, Marconi, NEC, NTT, QoS Networks, and Qwest.
"Networks have become extraordinarily complex and user demands seem to grow everyday; the result is that simple, old-school routing procedures are insufficient for today's carrier-class networks," said Bill Felix, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Network Planning and Emerging Technologies at Qwest. "OPNET and the MPLS Model Development Consortium have gone to great lengths to create a highly accurate MPLS model that we believe will be a key enabler of next-generation networks. Traffic engineers will have a very powerful tool to structure traffic flow and manage end-to-end network performance."
In addition to supporting VPNs and traffic engineering, MPLS's support for differentiated classes of service is expected to play a key role in efforts by service providers to implement, and adhere to, service level agreements (SLAs) for customers with business-critical performance and availability requirements. MPLS supports Internet Protocol-based networks over nearly any physical media, and is being applied to ATM and optical networks as well.
"MPLS is the technology that enables us to provide premium VPN services defined by explicit SLAs," said Hiroshi Yamada, Senior Research Engineer at NTT Service Integration Laboratories. "OPNET software is indispensable for network design, enabling service providers to optimize network resource utilization and performance, and satisfy reliability requirements. The OPNET MPLS model will be a very useful tool for designing MPLS networks."
Product Availability
General availability of the MPLS Specialized Model is scheduled for the first quarter of 2001. Demonstrations will be made this week at COMNET 2001, at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. For pricing and advance purchase information, contact info@opnet.com.
About OPNET Technologies, Inc.
The OPNET family of intelligent network management software enables customers to optimize the performance and maximize the availability of communications networks and networked applications. The OPNET product suite combines predictive simulation and a comprehensive understanding of networking technologies to enable network professionals to more effectively design and deploy networks, diagnose network and application performance problems, define achievable service levels, and predict the impact of network and traffic changes. For more information about the company and its products, visit www.opnet.com.
The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including statements regarding OPNET Technologies Inc.'s expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies regarding the future. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based upon information available to OPNET Technologies, Inc. as of the date hereof; OPNET Technologies, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see the Company's reports filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, including its 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2000.
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Note to editors: The word OPNET is spelled with all upper-case letters.
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