Press Releases

2007

FORCE10 NETWORKS AWARDED PATENTS FOR ADVANCES IN RELIABLE SWITCHING AND ROUTING SYSTEM DESIGN

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 4, 2007 – Force10 Networks®, the pioneer in building and securing reliable networks, today announced that it has received two additional patents for its innovations in high performance switch and router design that increase system-level reliability. Designed to provide increased fault tolerance and more efficient packet handling, the advances protected by Force10’s most recent patents are crucial to delivering the reliability that high performance networks require.

“These improvements in high performance switching and routing enable us to provide a consistently reliable solution for our customers,” said Joel Goergen, chief scientist and vice president of technology at Force10 Networks. “By leveraging our past advances in switch and router technology and continuing our focus on fault tolerance, dependability and scalability, we are able to provide the reliable networking foundation our customers require to ensure their network is a strategic asset.”

Together, the two patents protect advances that enable high density switches and routers to more efficiently schedule packet transmissions within the system to avoid creating bottlenecks or unduly delaying traffic. The first patent reduces traffic blocking and maintains port productivity by grouping traffic destined for the same egress port, enabling system-level support for higher traffic flows without compromising performance.

The second patent protects an innovation in switch fabric architecture that increases the reliability of the switch or router. By dynamically allocating parallel switch fabrics, this design advance removes a significant impediment to operating at higher throughput. Additionally, this architecture is fault tolerant and can degrade gracefully when one or more switch fabrics go down.

These two patents, as well as 16 other patents that protect key innovations in system design and packet processing, underpin the Force10 Reliable Networking product portfolio. Collectively, these advances provide the reliability, network control and scalability organizations need to build a high performance network that meets today’s demands and can adapt to future ones.

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business. The company’s high performance solutions are designed to deliver new economics by virtualizing and automating Ethernet networks.  Force10’s high density and resilient Ethernet switching and routing products increase network availability, agility and efficiency while reducing power and cooling costs.  Force10 provides 24x7 service and support capabilities to its global customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide.  For more information on Force10 Networks, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Contact:
Kevin Kimball
Force10 Networks Inc.
+1 408 571-3544
kkimball@force10networks.com

Force10 Networks, the Force10 Networks logo, Force10, E-Series, Traverse, and TraverseEdge are registered trademarks and ExaScale, S-Series, TeraScale, and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.