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Sonus NBS5200 and NBS9000 Network Border Switches Receive 'Miercom Performance Verified Certification'

Results of the independent third-party tests validated Sonus's claim that the NBS5200 is the session border controller with the greatest session density and throughput and that it can withstand severe denial of service attacks while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through and continuing to process calls successfully.

With evolving market requirements in mind, the Miercom testing evaluated the ability of Sonus' NBS9000 and NBS5200 to meet or exceed both current and future market demands. Aware that simply meeting 'carrier-class' requirements is no longer adequate, Miercom tested the NBS5200 and NBS9000 under a variety of strenuous conditions including Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and the high-volume spikes that can follow a power outage.

"Even though the Session Border Control function has evolved to cover many more functions, such as routing and media interworking, the basic functionality of connectivity and security still must be executed without compromise for a service provider or large enterprise to trust their network border to an SBC," commented Joe McGarvey, principal analyst of IP Services Infrastructure at Current Analysis. "By putting their SBC family through rigorous independent certification, Sonus is instilling confidence in their customer base that their networks will stay protected even under attacks and extreme overload conditions."

The Sonus NBS5200 was tested to measure the carrier peering and access configuration using UDP in six areas:

    --  Capacity (maximum number of calls/registrations)
    --  Performance (call/registration rate)
    --  Overload /Congestion Control
    --  Endpoint CAC Control
    --  NATTED endpoints
    --  Attacks including call traffic flood and registration traffic flood

During all phases of the testing, the Sonus NBS5200 displayed little to no stress for allocated memory and CPU utilization. In fact, it handled all baseline loads without any alarms and lost no calls. The total number of Integrated Access Devices (IADs) successfully registered was 256K in a mixed (NATTED and non-NATTED) environment. This is two and a half times more than the projected performance of other industry-leading products.

"We were impressed with the scalability and capacity of the NBS5200, and verified that it handily exceeded the capacity of other market-leading products," said Rob Smithers, CEO of Miercom. "With regard to the total number of endpoints successfully registered, maximum number of simultaneous calls processed and performance under overload conditions, the NBS5200 proved it has the processing horsepower to meet both present and future carrier-class demands."

Key findings of the Miercom NBS5200 test are:

    --  NBS5200 successfully registered 256,000 user-authenticated IADs in 16
        minutes at a rate of 55 registrations per second during a simulated
        metro area outage and recovery scenario
    --  Demonstrated outstanding CPU and Allocated Memory utilization throughout
        all tests. Testers observed that these resources were rarely stressed
        and never maximized
    --  Sonus NBS5200 maintains scalable call processing while under attack from
        spoofed IPs. In a maximum configuration it supports up to 64,000
        concurrent calls.
    --  Advanced Lights Out Management (ALOM) internal controller allows for
        device management and reporting during a system outage

"Miercom is the industry's testing standard, which is why we chose to have our NBS9000 and NBS5200 run through its rigorous certification process," said Guru Pai, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Sonus Networks. "While many older products are currently deployed in carrier networks, those technologies can no longer deliver the performance and scalability required of next-generation networks. Simply being 'carrier-class' is no longer good enough. That's why we designed the NBS9000 and NBS5200 to meet tomorrow's network demands."

In a separate report published by Miercom, Sonus's NBS9000 was tested for performance under similar, demanding real-world scenarios including registration avalanches following a power outage, DoS attacks (both internal and external) and the ability to register all IADs. In addition, Miercom tested the maximum capacity of the NBS9000's configuration using both NATTED and non-NATTED IADs. Key findings from that test include:

    --  NBS9000 successfully registered 300,000 user authenticated NATTED IADs
        in 22 minutes at a rate of 232 registrations per second during a
        simulated metro area outage and recovery scenario
    --  Maintained call processing of over 21,500 simultaneous calls while under
        attack from spoofed IPs
    --  NBS9000 scalability was proven with more than 27,000 simultaneous calls
        at 119 cps, 300,000 IADs

The full NBS9000 test results and report can be found at: http://www.sonusnet.com/content/whitepaper-details/Miercom-Lab-TestingPerformance-Report-on-Sonus-NBS9000/17.aspx

About the Sonus NBS9000 and NBS5200

The Sonus NBS9000 is a session border control solution available as a software upgrade for the GSX9000(TM), which is the world's most widely deployed IP voice platform. The NBS9000 provides secure session management for IP flows with carrier-grade reliability and scalability, and supports an industry-leading array of signaling and media interworking capabilities.

Launched earlier this year, the Sonus NBS5200 is a next-generation session border control product and the first Sonus product launched on the ConnexIP(TM) platform. It employs the latest generation of network processors, computing processors and digital signal processors (DSPs) to deliver the highest performance-density SBC on the market. Its functions include integrated transcoding, media interworking and native support for addressing IPv6.

About Sonus Networks

Sonus Networks, Inc. is a leader in IP networking with proven expertise in delivering secure, reliable and scalable next-generation infrastructure and subscriber solutions. With customers in over 50 countries across the globe and over a decade of experience in transforming networks to IP, Sonus has enabled service providers and enterprises to capture and retain users and generate significant ROI. Sonus products include media and signaling gateways, policy/routing servers, session border controllers and subscriber feature servers. Sonus products are supported by a global services team with experience in design, deployment and maintenance of some of the world's largest and most complex IP networks. For more information, visit www.sonusnet.com.

About Miercom

Miercom is a leading, independent product test center with hundreds of its product-comparison analyses published over the years in leading network trade periodicals. Our reports regularly appear in Business Communications Review - NoJitter, Communications News, Internet Telephony, Network World, xchange and other publications.

Miercom features comprehensive certification and test programs including Certified Interoperable, Certified Reliable, Certified Secure and Certified Green. Products may also be evaluated under the NetWORKS As Advertised(TM) program, in which networking-related products must pass a comprehensive, independent assessment of their usability and performance as compared to advertised specifications.

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to Item 1A "Risk Factors" of Sonus' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 and all subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements represent Sonus' views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing Sonus' views as of any subsequent date. While Sonus may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Sonus specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law.

Sonus is a registered trademark of Sonus Networks, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

    For more information, please contact:
    Aline Kaplan
    alkaplan@sonusnetworks.com
    +1 978-614-8167

    Paul Roberts
    sonus@daviesmurphy.com
    +1 781-418-2418

SOURCE Sonus Networks, Inc.