Nortel, Northwestern University Demonstrate Next-Gen Digital Media Optical Network


INDUSTRY'S FIRST PERMANENT GLOBAL TEST BED PROVES DIGITAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION TECHNOLOGIES

NOVEMBER 12, 2007

OTTAWA - Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT] has teamed with Northwestern University to demonstrate an international network - designed and optimized to deliver digital media and video - based on next-generation optical network technology. The network is the industry's first permanent global test bed for digital media-optimized networking, built to evaluate new technologies for high-bandwidth applications like high-definition (HD) movies, immersive HD video conferencing, telemedicine, collaborative aeronautic design and other critical, very-high bandwidth operations.

The focus of the collaboration is to deliver bandwidth-intensive digital media streams like real time, HD video, over large distances globally. It is being demonstrated at SC07 the international advanced computing storage and communications conference in Reno, Nevada, November 10 to 16.

The test bed is geographically dispersed across Reno, Amsterdam, Chicago, Barcelona and Ottawa. The work is spearheaded by Northwestern University's International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), a communications research body in which Nortel is a partner. Other contributing partners of this work include CANARIE, Canada's advanced Internet development organization, Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC), the i2CAT Foundation, the advanced networking organization of Catalonia, Spain, and Inocybe Canada. Together, they are demonstrating how optical multicast technologies in conjunction with dynamic bandwidth allocation techniques greatly improve the user experience for digital media services and support the upcoming era of Hyperconnectivity.

"Increasingly, digital media applications are quickly migrating the Internet from its traditional text and graphic modes to those that provide a much wider and richer range of high definition, full color, full featured environments," said Joe Mambretti, director of iCAIR. "This optical network demonstrates how such advanced media services can be deployed on networks, including high-definition, high quality video - cross the nation or across the world. Northwestern and Nortel have a long-standing relationship working on next-generation networking technologies and this demo offers a glimpse of the future of how digital media will be transported on the network."

"Video requires more than raw bandwidth, it requires the control to ensure the integrity of the data stream, said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. "Our work with Northwestern is focused on the research and development of cutting-edge optical networking technologies that provide not only high-definition video, but also huge video files, allowing movie studios to transmit and edit movie master copies, for example."

"This research will help lay the foundation for the coming trend of Hyperconnectivity, which encompasses person-to-person communication, person-to-machine and machine-to-machine. It is fueling huge increases in bandwidth demand because of the complexity, diversity and integration of new applications and devices using the network," Morin said.

The network is based on Nortel's Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500, and uses its optical multicast capabilities to deliver high-bandwidth services like video more efficiently and economically. The OME 6500 is an optical convergence optical platform that efficiently transports TDM, data, and advanced wavelength services providing a seamless evolution to a packet-based infrastructure.

It also includes Nortel's Dynamic Allocation Resource Controller (DRAC), a software suite that acts as the guide for video traffic on the network. It enables applications such as video and grid computing, for example, to find and use additional bandwidth available on the network. This enables massive data flows for specific periods of time. DRAC also helps make machine-to-machine communication possible and automates the provisioning, maintenance, and repair of networks, making them self-healing in the process. Nortel Optical Solutions are deployed in more than 1000 customer networks in over 65 countries.

About International Center for Advanced Internet Research, Northwestern University (iCAIR**):

iCAIR accelerates leading-edge innovation and enhanced global communications through the design and development of advanced communications technologies, in partnership with researchers in the international community, and among national partners iCAIR also manages specialized facilities such as communications research testbeds and advanced exchanges, such as the international StarLight exchange in Chicago.

About Nortel

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit nortel.com/news.

**This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.

Contacts for Press and Analysts:
Pat Cooper
425-450-7523
pat.cooper@nortel.com

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