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Founded in 1998, Astral Point Communications, Inc. is a well financed operating company with the goal of reshaping the manner in which optical telecommunications occurs within and adjacent to metropolitan market centers.The company's focus is on developing products and services that deliver high return-on-investment results for the major telecommunications firms, such as incumbent local exchange carriers, that transport the vast percentage of the nation's metropolitan area voice, data and video traffic. Astral Point's specific solutions are based upon the optimization of metropolitan traffic running over SONET networks. SONET networks predominate in the major carrier infrastructure -- carrying more than 90 percent of all traffic -- and are expected to more than double in scope by 2004 because of innovations such as those developed by Astral Point and other next-generation developers.Astral Point brings to this market an established track record as a "first mover" in inventing, announcing and delivering optical product innovations for SONET-based networks. Such "first mover" innovations encompass:Networking architecturesElement management systemsNetwork element consolidationMultiple interfacesMulti-topology solutionsBandwidth managementServices provisioningProtection and restoration featuresOptical wavelength advances Astral Point's ON 7000 Integrated Optical Transport Node, introduced in May 2001, is a prime example of the company's attainment of high-ROI networking functionality for metropolitan SONET networks. The node incorporates density, performance and cost-savings advantages that provide immediate and substantial benefits to carrier customers. At the same time, the ON 7000 node incorporates innovations that assure forward looking investment protection, with positive longer-term ROI implications, for such customers.Astral Point's ON 5000 Optical Services Node, introduced in March 2000, is installed and operating in a variety of incumbent and competitive LEC customer sites, where it provides innovative edge digital cross connect (DCS), optical lightwave transport and other metropolitan optical services under SONET-based protection and restoration techniques.Astral Point has been one of the first next-generation optical equipment suppliers to commit to the OSMINE interoperability standards required in ILEC and other major carrier Operations Support and related network management systems.The company has received $113 million in venture capital financing from such leading investors as Bowman Capital, Essex Investment Management, NEA, OneLiberty Ventures and The Sprout Group.Astral Point's Market: High-ROI SONET Metro SolutionsWhile alternatives are in development, it has become increasingly clear that SONET will dominate as the transport mechanism to build out carrier-class metropolitan networks for the foreseeable future.Today, SONET equipment is entrenched in every ILEC metropolitan network. It is the standard to which carrier employees have been trained. OAM&P systems that support critical metro networking functions are wholly dependent on SONET. SONET framing, architecture, interfacing, scaling and reliability are essential to metro network functionality. Moreover, SONET remains the only proven mechanism between dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) and the vast amount of routing, switching and aggregation equipment currently installed in metropolitan networks. In addition, SONET-based systems support 90 percent of carrier revenue streams, which must be fully protected while new services are brought on line.The market for SONET, DCS and DWDM metro transport equipment is expected to more than double between 2000 and 2004, from $5.9 billion to more than $12.9 billion, according to RHK Associates. Nearly half of that growth is expected in metropolitan and regional networks, where data and video traffic demand continues to expand dramatically. The urgency for better product solutions in the metro SONET space can be seen in a single statistic: 80 percent of new services now terminate on service points-of-presence within metro networks, with only 20 percent passed through to long-haul networks, according to industry analysts.The recognition of this high-growth market has fueled development of next-generation SONET network elements such as Astral Point's ON 7000 node. Such next-gen SONET products are seen by many as far less costly and functional - and more immediately deployable - than the complicated non-SONET alternatives that are being discussed.Astral Point: A "First Mover" In Its MarketTo address its customer needs, Astral Point has been an aggressive innovator in the metropolitan optical networking market.First to announce general availability of a metro optical access product (ON 5000 Optical Services Node, 7/19/00)First metro optical equipment provider to announce distributed digital cross connect capabilities on a DWDM metro node (8/1/00)First metro optical product supplier to support distributed digital cross connect at DS3, DS1 and DS0 levelsFirst next-gen metro optical product supplier to announce commitment to the OSMINE interoperability standard (8/22/00)First metro optical equipment provider to announce a transport node six times denser and less than half the cost of other next-gen SONET nodes (ON 7000, 5/14/01)First Massachusetts telecom manufacturer to be ISO 9001:2000 certified (7/01)First metro equipment provider to demonstrate OC-192 DWDM traffic running on 400 km of SMF28 fiber on a SONET metro transport node (ON 7000, 9/10/01)First next-gen SONET node supplier to scale to 1.274 Tbit switching fabric (10/01)First supplier to install next-gen SONET node for beta testing (11/01) topON 7000 Node: The First High-ROI SONET PlatformThe ON 7000 node is the first next-generation SONET node to establish new return-on-investment standards that carriers can enjoy immediately, while at the same time being assured of future protection of their investment in tomorrow's metro SONET networks.The ON 7000 meets the most urgent near-term need of carriers for both affordable and scalable networks through a market-leading architecture that incorporates best-in-class scalability, extensibility and manageability resources. By consolidating three traditional networking elements in a single platform, the ON 7000 provides a solution that requires seventy-five percent less space and power than competing vendors and a capital equipment savings of more than sixty percent. Significant operational savings are realized because the ON 7000 node supports an open interface that provides plug-in support for an ILEC's existing OSS infrastructure.The product's scalability - from DS3 to OC-768, with a switching fabric of from 320 gigabits to 1.28 terabits and support for up to 64 wavelengths - enables carriers to lower costs and generate revenue by being able to expand installed network elements, eliminate extra equipment and add new services on existing infrastructure.The ON 7000's extensibility provides high-ROI benefits by requiring fewer network elements per service delivered, by supporting longer metro and regional spans over installed fiber (up to 400km using conventional cable), and by enabling much faster build-out of both infrastructure and services. Features such as modular optical amplifiers, dispersion compensation innovation, OC-192 forward error-correction and multi-ring grooming of hundreds of subtended rings (versus only one in traditional SONET networks) add dramatically to the ROI possible with the ON 7000's extensibility.Greater compatibility with existing and third-party network elements, faster deployment of services, and more rapid scaling within the network infrastructure are just several of the manageability features that further contribute to a high-ROI outcome. Compliance with OSMINE and support for many independent network management systems are major carrier-class attributes of the ON 7000 SONET node.The ON 7000 incorporates best-in-class capabilities of a SONET add/drop multiplexer (ADM), digital cross-connect (DCS) and dense wave division multiplexer (DWDM) into a single platform that is one-sixth the size of the elements it replaces. The ON 7000 aggregates up to 576 DS3, 864 OC-3 and up to 36 OC-192 interfaces per rack, which represents three times more DS3, three times more OC-3, and six times more OC-192s than its nearest competitors. In addition, the ON 7000 is the only product available that can groom to STS-1 and VT1.5 granularity at this scale. Direct support for DWDM optics on its high-speed ring interfaces ensures a very efficient and economical hand-off to inter-office or regional DWDM networks.