Ciena, Cyras Co-Demonstrate

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- CIENA Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) and Cyras Systems, Inc. today announced that the two companies will demonstrate interoperability between CIENA's MultiWave CoreDirector(tm) intelligent optical core switch and MultiWave Metro(tm) optical transport system and Cyras' K2(tm) Next-Generation SONET platform at this week's OFC 2001 conference and exhibit. CIENA intends to complete its acquisition of Cyras during the first calendar quarter of 2001.

CIENA and Cyras will feature two separate demonstrations during the OFC exhibit March 19 - 22, 2001 in CIENA's booth #1616. The first will show video traffic passing through Cyras' K2 platform and CIENA's MultiWave Metro and CoreDirector platforms over 2.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps) optical wavelengths. The second demo will highlight the K2's ability to deliver Gigabit Ethernet services over 10Gbps optical wavelengths.

"Cyras' K2 and CIENA's CoreDirector family of intelligent optical switches will result in a very effective combination in offering advanced bandwidth intelligence across the optical network," said Mark Lutkowitz, vice president of optical networking research for Communications Industry Researchers. "Being in constant touch with service providers, I am impressed by the dominating market position of CoreDirector as well as the sizable lead of the K2 in terms of low-cost OC-192 capability. Furthermore, it appears that CIENA has all of the bases covered in the public metropolitan network with its Metro transport solutions and Cyras K2 intelligent switching platform."

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