Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation Presented to Fujitsu for Packet Optical Networking

Fujitsu Network Communications, a leading supplier of IT and wireline/wireless networking solutions, announced today that their FLASHWAVE® 9500 platform has received the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation in the Packet Optical Networking Platform (Packet ONP) segment. The platform defines the next evolution of networking elements by delivering the packet aggregation agility and bulk transport scalability required to support the packet-centric networks that today’s network service providers require.

“Fujitsu has leveraged 15 years of optical leadership and expertise to deliver a product that will likely define this important space,” said Prayerna Raina, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “The FLASHWAVE 9500 platform raises the bar in the Packet ONP segment with the modular, chassis-level integration of Ethernet, SONET and ROADM technologies in a single platform. The initial platform supports 24 universal interface slots, a 480G switch fabric and occupies one-third of a rack, which makes it among the industry’s densest optical networking platforms. Frost & Sullivan is confident that Fujitsu has set itself apart from the competition with its FLASHWAVE 9500 platform.”

The patent-pending universal switch fabric of the FLASHWAVE 9500 platform allows both SONET-based traffic and packet-based traffic to be switched in its native format. This design allows carriers to create a truly universal transport network that can uniquely cope with the rapidly growing demand for both Ethernet and TDM traffic. With its ultra-dense ROADM-on-a-card technology, this global platform can support a two-degree, 40Gbps-ready ROADM in one quarter of a shelf, while allowing easy expansion to multiple degrees. The FLASHWAVE 9500 system will deliver connection-oriented Ethernet transport, and is expected to provide private-line equivalent QoS in a unified and scalable Ethernet services network. A full range of next generation SONET capabilities are also provided, allowing carriers to deploy the FLASHWAVE 9500 platform as an interoperable extension of their current network.

“We designed our FLASHWAVE 9500 platform to allow service providers to continue to deploy networks with the same cost and manageability benefits that optical networking has always provided, only now for the high-bandwidth, high-quality, packet-centric services of the Connected Experience,” said Jim Hintze, senior vice president of marketing at Fujitsu Network Communications. “We are extremely pleased that Frost & Sullivan has recognized the series of technical and management innovations that support the carrier migration to the packet-enabled metro network. This latest award reflects the dedication of our development team to push the envelope and create a ground-breaking product that is defining the Packet Optical Networking Platform segment.”

“The employees of Fujitsu consistently seek innovation in technology, efficiency, and many other areas,” continued Hintze. “In fact, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Fujitsu Limited consistently ranks within the top 15 organizations worldwide in terms of the number of patents granted per year. In 2006 alone, 1487 patents were issued to our company and our employees, which illustrates the emphasis that we place on innovative thinking and creative approaches to simplify everyday tasks. We also have a Kaizen program which rewards employees for innovative ideas, and last year over 4,000 Kaizens were implemented that ultimately led to cost savings or innovative technology/products such as the FLASHWAVE 9500 platform.”

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation is presented each year to the company that has best demonstrated the ability to develop and/or advance products with more innovative capabilities than competing vendors and products. This award recognizes the company’s successful adoption of new or existing technology that has become a part of its well-designed product family. Such innovation is expected to significantly contribute to the industry in terms of product performance and degree/rate of technical change.