CALABASAS HILLS, Calif. -- Lynx Photonic Networks announced today the signing of three new U.S. channel partners for its successful LightLEADER™ family of plug-and-play photonic switches: Bert Technologies, Choicecomm and Leonard Associates, they join previously announced channel partners Digital Technology, Inc. and MCC Sales. Lynx also has signed two Asian distributors for LightLEADER – South Korean-based 4urnet and Taiwan-headquartered BBN.

With an expanding number of models serving a growing range of applications, the Lynx LightLEADER is an ideal product line for distributors, resellers and manufacturer's representatives. Built around Lynx's patented intelligent optical switch fabrics, LightLEADER is a compact all-optical communications system targeted at network carriers, test laboratories, manufacturers, enterprises and government agencies for applications such as protection switching, high-availability storage area networks, and test equipment monitoring.

The LightLEADER channel program is structured both vertically and geographically, and Lynx's new U.S. partners serve a broad spectrum of markets:

Introduced in the third quarter of 2003, the LightLEADER series is built around Lynx's patented intelligent optical switch fabrics. LightLEADER products allow switching from any optical path or fiber to any other, are data-rate and format independent (including support for10- and 40-Gbps transmission), and can be configured as strictly non-blocking. The systems come with an intuitive graphical user interface that is hosted locally on a PC or remotely via an Ethernet connection; they can also be managed by SNMP and by CLI.

"A lot of our customers need optical switches with this kind of capability, so LightLEADER adds important synergy to our product offerings," said Scott Leonard, president of Leonard Associates. "Also, because our customer base is so diverse, the versatility of the LightLEADER family will open up more sales opportunities for us."

Because LightLEADER's switching and path management technology is solid state, the systems have no moving parts and are ultra-reliable. Their internal optical chip subsystems, for example, have survived extreme reliability tests and passed a 2-billion switch cycle test without performance degradation.

"Before selling the Lynx fiber switching products to the government, we represented similar products that met with resistance from customers because they used mechanical devices for switching light," said Woody Story, president and founder of Choicecomm. "Government customers had concerns about mechanical switching because the equipment is typically shipped around the world, and reliability is critical. LightLEADER, of course, has no moving parts, giving it tremendous reliability.

"It's especially ideal for agencies like the Transportation Security Agency, which has all-fiber networks between airports; LightLEADER can be used to detect any attempts to intercept the fiber signal. Also, there are many critical government IT applications where switching times are very important for disaster recovery situations, and LightLEADER's switching is many times faster than communications devices."

Lynx Photonic Networks