Seven Global Telecom Carriers Unite for OIF Interoperability Demonstration

Seven of the world's largest telecommunications companies have
united under the banner of the Optical Internetworking Forum to
showcase multi-vendor interoperability in a multi-carrier environment
during the OIF's Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration - On-Demand
Ethernet Services. OIF member companies AT&T, China Telecom, Deutsche
Telekom, France Telecom Group, KDDI, Telecom Italia and Verizon will
host participating network equipment vendors during interoperability
testing June through August 2007.

The demonstration will highlight dynamic Ethernet services over
multiple, control plane-enabled intelligent optical core networks,
made possible by the OIF UNI and E-NNI, including:

- Ethernet Private Line service

- Non-disruptive bandwidth modification

- Graceful recovery from control plane or signaling network
failures

"Collaboration among the world's most important network operators
is a hallmark of the OIF's Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration,"
said Hans-Martin Foisel, of Deutsche Telekom, OIF Carrier Working
Group chair and vice president. "The OIF pioneered the concept of live
global testing, and this event exemplifies the benefits of membership
in the Forum. The outcome of the tests and demonstrations will benefit
the entire industry."

The first phase of the event will emphasize interoperability
testing among vendors within a carrier's lab. The second phase of the
testing will connect carrier labs by region and, finally, each of the
participating service providers will be connected as part of the
global test network topology.

Combining the service providers' private testing and a public
demonstration, OIF's 2007 Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration -
On-Demand Ethernet Services is based upon intra-lab testing at each of
the participating carrier sites. The test sites will be linked via
virtual or real E-NNI connections to form a global test network
topology. The event will enable vendors to test with more vendor
implementations and allow carriers to access additional network
resources beyond the boundary of their existing networks on a global
scale.

Public Access to Interoperability Demo

The 2007 OIF Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration - On-Demand
Ethernet Services will culminate in a public demonstration of the
results at the exhibition of the ECOC2007, September 17-19, 2007 in
Berlin, Germany.

About the OIF

Launched in April of 1998, the OIF is the only industry group
uniting representatives from data and optical networking disciplines,
including many of the world's leading carriers, component
manufacturers and system vendors. The OIF promotes the development and
deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services through
the creation of Implementation Agreements (IAs) for optical,
interconnect, network processing and component technologies, and
optical networking systems. The OIF actively supports and extends the
work of national and international standards bodies with the goal of
promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products.
Working relationships or formal liaisons have been established with
the IEEE 802.3, IETF, ITU-T Study Group 13, ITU-T Study Group 15, IPv6
Forum, MFA Forum, MEF, MVA, ATIS OPTXS, ATIS TMOC, Rapid I/O, TMF,
UXPi and the XFP MSA Group. More information on the OIF can be found
at www.oiforum.com http://www.oiforum.com.