Marconi to Resell Laurel

PITTSBURGH -- Marconi Corporation plc (London: MONI) today announced the availability of the BXR(TM)-5000 edge router as part of a partnership between its Broadband Routing and Switching group and privately held Laurel Networks, Inc. The BXR-5000 will complement Marconi's existing solutions for U.S. Federal government network operators and global service providers.

Under the partnership, Marconi introduces the BXR-5000, a scalable 160 Gigabits per second per rack platform (80 Gbps in and 80 Gbps out) that supports the aggregation of high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) into a high-speed multiservice core over OC-48c / STM-16 (2.5 Gigabits per second) or OC-192c / STM-64 (10 Gigabits per second) circuits. Complementing Marconi's BXR-48000, a 960 Gbps (480 Gbps in and 480 Gbps out) switch-router, the BXR-5000 supports the high-density, high-speed aggregation using Packet over Sonet / Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (POS / SDH) or Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) transport protocols, delivering high-bandwidth, next-generation performance today with commercially-available, standards-based Quality of Service (QoS) and encryption support required by mission-critical network operators.

"Through this partnership, Marconi combines its strong relationships in the federal market and best-in-class multiservice switching technology with Laurel's world-class IP routing," said Mark Bieberich, Senior Analyst Communications Network Infrastructure, of Yankee Group. "As the operators of government networks expand their switched and routed networks, this provides a compelling solution for delivering new IP and MPLS services while also maintaining support for legacy services."

The agreement, which includes sales, marketing and development activities, provides a complementary solution to Marconi's BXR, ASX(TM) and TNX(TM) products. In addition to providing aggregation of high-density GigE and Internet Protocol (IP) services, the BXR-5000 addresses the requirements of U.S. Federal government markets for IP Quality of Service along with the benefits of plug and play provisioning of network elements with self-configuration, self-healing and simple management of large, flat networks. This agreement complements the recently announced partnership with Riverstone Networks, which enables Marconi to combine its Softswitch with a GigE router to provide a competitive voice over IP (VoIP) networking solution.

"Marconi has established a leadership position with their world-class switching technology in the federal market and among many key carriers," said Steve Vogelsang, co-founder and vice president of marketing, Laurel Networks. "Introducing Laurel's innovative IP edge routing technology into the Marconi portfolio enables a best-of-breed solution that combines the best of both switching and routing."

The partnership also provides the robust network characteristics such as scalability, predictability, reliability, security and flexibility required for real-time applications that include transport of multimedia, high-performance computing and high-resolution imagery.

"With this agreement, Laurel and Marconi have forged a partnership to deliver unique benefits to Marconi customers," said Tom Murray, vice president of marketing, Marconi's Broadband Routing and Switching group. "We are committed to delivering a robust solution that ensures the best performance for current and emerging broadband services."

Marconi Corp. plc

Laurel Networks Inc.