May 02, 2006 11:00 ET

Foundry Networks and VeriWave Set Milestone With Record-Setting Demonstration of Wireless LAN Switching Capacity

Live Demonstration of Next-Generation Wireless LAN Switch Sets Performance Record With Over 16,000 Wireless Client Connections

LAS VEGAS, NV -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 2, 2006 -- Foundry Networks®, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, and VeriWave, the leading provider of performance analysis tools for Wireless LAN equipment and networks, today announced their collaboration by conducting the industry's highest-capacity wireless LAN demonstration, using Foundry's concept next-generation wireless switch series, the FastIron IronPoint Wireless Switch series and VeriWave's multi-port WaveTest™ 90 traffic generator and performance analyzer. This demonstration can only be seen at booth # 1024 located at the Interop Las Vegas tradeshow which opened at Mandalay Bay's Convention Center May 2.

"We have over 800 customers using our 802.11 a/b/g generation of wireless products worldwide," said Bob Schiff, vice-president and general manager of enterprise business unit for Foundry Networks. "With the rapid growth in wireless deployments and the advent of higher speed wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11n, we see a need for next-generation wireless switch products that can handle wireless traffic capacity that is an order of magnitude over what current-generation products can support. This joint demonstration shows the direction Foundry is taking with its wireless switch products to provide our customers with scalable systems that can accommodate the anticipated traffic demands of next-generation wireless equipment."

The live demonstration sets a new performance benchmark for the networking industry, showing a capacity of 16,000 wireless clients aggregated onto eighteen one-gigabit Ethernet ports on a FastIron IronPoint Wireless Switch, a concept next-generation wireless LAN switch that provides hardware-based tunneling of wireless traffic delivering wire-speed switching and routing. Application environments that can take advantage of this performance and scalability include service providers, education campuses, entertainment, engineering and research, large enterprise networks, and so many more.

For the demonstration, eighteen one-gigabit Ethernet ports on a FastIron X IronPoint Wireless Switch are connected to eighteen test ports on a WaveTest 90. These include WLAN IEEE 802.11 and GbE test ports, each emulating up to 3,200 wireless clients and generating air-rate test traffic. The WaveTest 90 is used to the measure the switch's forwarding data rate, latency and packet loss. The actual measured forwarding rate is 11.9 Gbps.

"VeriWave is committed to furthering the adoption of Wireless LANs in enterprise applications," said Eran Karoly, vice president of marketing at VeriWave. "The WaveTest 90 traffic generator / analyzer allows WLAN equipment vendors, for the first time, to test the true scalability and performance of their systems. With our recent introduction of the IEEE WLAN Benchmark Test, VeriWave provides a common set of metrics for stress testing and performance analysis, which are an essential element for wide acceptance of WLANs in enterprise applications. We are happy to assist Foundry in proving the scalability and capacity of their concept next-generation FastIron Wireless Switch series."

The FastIron IronPoint Wireless LAN Switch series will be available in early 2007. Foundry's entire line of wireless and wired switches and routers can be seen at booth #1024.

VeriWave's entire line of WLAN test products can be viewed at booth #566.

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security, and Web traffic management solutions including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4 - 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers and Metro routers. Foundry's 9,700 customers include the world's premier ISPs, Metro service providers, and enterprises including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial, and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynetworks.com.

About VeriWave

VeriWave is the leading provider of test systems for performance analysis of wireless local area network (WLAN) products. VeriWave's products are used by equipment manufacturers to accurately analyze the performance of their products, as well as by carriers and enterprise users to make the right choice when selecting WLAN equipment for deployment in their networks. For more information about VeriWave, call (503) 473-8350, or go to www.veriwave.com.