WESTFORD, Mass. -- NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) , a leading provider of network and application performance management solutions, today announced the expansion of its product architecture to meet emerging opportunities in the telecommunications sector. Unveiling its new nGenius(R) Packet-over-SONET Probe for OC-48c/STM-16c environments, NetScout is the first vendor to offer direct, centralized, application-aware network performance management to carriers with high-speed optical networks. Mobile service providers offering multimedia and Internet services are leading the demand for these capabilities as they roll out 3G core networks worldwide, focused on protecting service quality and maximizing customer retention.

"OC-48 occupies the sweet spot for metro optical markets and supplies a strong portion of the long haul market. Driving its deployment are consumer broadband and corporate traffic, as well as demand for mobile telephony and data traffic in 2.5G and 3G networks," said Michael Howard, principal analyst of Infonetics Research. "This is a natural move for NetScout, as its products can improve time-to-market for carriers in new network and services rollouts. As traffic increases in these complex backbones, NetScout products provide operations managers the detailed information required to ensure quality of experience for all customers using the network at any moment."

Mobile data traffic is expected to grow rapidly, as more consumers begin using mobile phones for e-mail, Web access, video, photography and newer offerings such as personal banking and roaming Wi-Fi. The anticipation of this growth has caused service providers to begin embracing new operational management practices, such as application-aware bandwidth management, traffic identification and application profiling.

NetScout Systems Inc.