• Last month, PMC-Sierra introduced its CHESS (Channelizer Engine for SONET/SDH) chip set designed to manage and groom SONET/SDH traffic at both STS-1/DS3 base access rate and at OC-48/STM-16 base DWDM rate granularities.  The chip set provides SONET/SDH framing capability at OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 optical line rates. Its STS-1 channelized traffic grooming capability allows for dedicated service processing cards such as Packet-over-SONET, ATM and Frame Relay that replace dedicated network equipment. The STS-1 grooming capability of the chip set enables sub-lambda wavelength processing.  http://www.pmc-sierra.com/chess

CORVIS FILES FOR IPO – LONG-HAUL ALL OPTICAL TRANSPORT
Corvis, a developer of an all-optical long-haul transmission platform, filed SEC papers for a planned initial public offering (IPO).  The Corvis platform scales in capacity to transport up to 160 OC-48/OC-48 (c) or 40 OC-192/OC-192(c) optical channels without electrical regeneration for up to 3,200 km.  The technology significantly reduces the number of electrical regenerator sites in a long-distance network. In addition, the Corvis Optical Router transparently provisions and reconfigures both OC-192/OC-192(c) and OC-48/OC-48 (c) service streams, up to a capacity of 2.4 terabits at a service provider switch site.  In April, Williams Communications awarded a contract valued at up to $200 million to Corvis.  Williams is currently testing the system along its Houston-Washington, D.C. fiber route.  The test route will also be extended to Dallas and to New York.  Commercial deployment is expected upon successful completion of the trial.    Corvis is led by Dr. David Huber, who previously founded Ciena Corp. and developed its 16-channel DWDM platform.  http://www.corvis.com
May 4, 2000

ERICSSON REGROUPS ITS PORTFOLIO INTO PACKET BACKBONE NETWORK MODEL
Ericsson announced a Packet Backbone Network (PBN) architectural model to integrate its existing product lines for wireline and wireless operators.  Ericsson said its overall strategy is to separate backbone elements, call control intelligence and subscriber applications, and deploy them on purpose-built platforms that are tied together by IP or ATM backbones.  Ericsson’s  Packet Backbone Network product portfolio includes:

• the AXD 301 ATM switch, which scales to 160 Gbps and with up to OC-48/STM-16 interfaces

• AXI 520 IP Core Router (OEM from Juniper Networks), 40 million packets/second performance and OC-48/STM-16 interfaces.  A core IP router supporting links up to OC-192c/STM-64 will be introduced in Q3.

• the AXI 540 Edge Aggregation Router (the Torrent platform) supporting service differentiation, VPN provisioning, and traffic engineering features

• a Multiservice Management Suite (MMS) that handles provisioning and billing for services, and guarantees the quality of a carrier's service offerings. The MMS will use a combination of Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and central database and directory services that may be shared between the management applications.  
  http://www.ericsson.com/datacom/

Ericsson, May 4, 2000

LONDON-BASED BAND-X RAISES $40 MILLION TO EXTEND ITS BANDWIDTH EXCHANGE 
Band-X, which opened the first wholesale bandwidth exchange market in London in 1997, raised $40 million in a second-round of venture funding to expand its operations to the US.  Investors include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity and Madison Dearborn Partners.  http://www.band-x.com
Band-X, May 4, 2000

• The Band-X Web-based exchange provides an anonymous trading floor for bandwidth, routed IP capacity, switched international voice traffic, specialist co-location facilities, telecom recruitment and telehousing and network construction cooperation.

SHAREWAVE RAISES $17 MILLION FOR EXTENDING WIRELESS LAN SILICON
ShareWave, a developer of silicon components for wireless LANs, secured $17 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to date to $60 million.  ShareWave's current product line includes wireless network controllers, wireless bridge controllers, residential gateway controllers, and associated networking services and protocols.  The company said it will use the new funds for developing solutions that extend standard IEEE 802.11b (11Mbps) and 802.11a (up to 54Mbps) wireless LANs with added QoS and multimedia features.  Investors include KLM Capital Partners, Dain Rauscher Wessels, SBC Communications, Kyushu Matsushita Electric, Accton Technologies, APV Technology Partners, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, Softbank, and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures.  The company is based in El Dorado Hills (Sacramento), California.  http://www.sharewave.com
ShareWave, May 4, 2000

FLASH NETWORKS SECURES NEW FUNDING FOR ITS TCP/IP ACCELERATION SOFTWARE
Flash Networks, a developer of TCP/IP performance acceleration software, closed $9.5 million in second-round financing.  Flash Networks' BoosterWare translates TCP packets into its own BST protocol for optimized WAN transfer.  It also applies real-time data compression and various Quality of Service policies and application-specific enhancements.  At the far end of the link, BST packets are reconverted back to TCP.  Investors include Networks, Giza GE Venture Capital Fund III, Argoquest, the Challenge Fund, Concord Ventures and Vertex Management.  Flash Networks is based in Holmdel, New Jersey, with R&D in Herzelia, Israel.
http://www.flash-networks.com/
Flash Networks, May 4, 2000

ADAPTEC ANNOUNCES ETHERSTORAGE TECHNOLOGY TO CHALLENGE FIBRE CHANNEL
Adaptec is preparing to introduce an EtherStorage Technology promising to bring the performance benefits of Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs) to a wider market.  The company claims its EtherStorage system will leverage the maximum bandwidth of Gigabit Ethernet connections while sustaining latencies and levels of CPU utilization similar to SCSI or Fibre Channel.  A demonstration is planned for next week's Networld+Interop in Las Vegas.
http://www.adaptec.com/adaptec/press/release000504.html
Adaptec, May 4, 2000

NET ACQUIRES CONVERGENCE EQUIPMENT COMPANY
N.E.T. has acquired the assets of privately held Convergence Equipment Company from Global Communication Technologies, for $1.5 million in cash.  Convergence Equipment develops IP telephony platforms, including a full-featured IP voice switch equipped with billing, clearing-house, network management and configuration tools.  http://www.net.com
NET, May 4, 2000

HYNEX ADDS FIBER RING TOPOLOGY SUPPORT TO ITS ATM MULTISERVICE PLATFORM
HyNEX added ring topology capabilites for its HUNT ATM multi access service platform.  The enhancements use statistical multiplexing, over subscription and QoS controls to increase the bandwidth efficiency of fiber rings.  http://www.hynex.com/
HyNEX, May 4, 2000

ALCATEL REPORTS 47% INCREASE IN TELECOM SALES, ONE MILLION ADSL LINES DELIVERED IN Q1
Alcatel said it delivered more than one million ADSL lines since the beginning of the year. In the US, Alcatel delivered 736,000 ADSL lines in the first quarter jumping by 80% over last year.  Overall, the company reported Q1 sales of EUR 6.124 billion (US$5.46 billion), up 42% over the same period in 1999.  Telecom sales grew by 47%.  Alcatel also noted major contracts in DWDM backbones, optical cross connects and submarine networks. It now expects its optical business to approach the EUR 7 billion mark at year-end. 
http://www.alcatel.com/vpr/index.htm?body=/latestnews/04052000uk?OpenDocument
Alcatel, May 4, 2000