Narad Networks, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company two key patents covering switched Ethernet over HFC. These patents pertain to Narad's FTTx products that leverage fiber and coaxial cable to combine standard Ethernet traffic with existing CATV services on the same wires.

"The premise of Narad's patents for Ethernet over HFC is that cable operators will need to leverage their existing infrastructure to add new services and new customers," said Michael Collette, CEO of Narad Networks. "During the past year HDTV and IPTV have emerged as central drivers in the battle to maintain dominance as video service providers, while the commercial services market is now recognized to be the largest growth engine for cable. What both of these have in common is heavy use of dedicated, constant-bit-rate, services. Narad's fiber-to-the-curb architecture provides the lowest cost, least disruptive, highest bandwidth solution for HFC."

Narad's recently announced FTTC products transport standard gigabit Ethernet over HFC while managing traffic flows using its service provisioning software system. The FTTC system carries 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps traffic over fiber trunks and uses low-cost switches and modems to transport dedicated, symmetric 100 Mbps Ethernet over existing coaxial cable drops to each and every customer premise.

"The latest Narad patents for switched Ethernet over hybrid fiber coaxial cable (HFC) systems are among the most important since the invention of Ethernet 33 years ago," said Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and investor in Narad Networks through Polaris Venture Partners. "Backbone and metropolitan network providers are quickly replacing outmoded ATM and SONET technologies with Ethernet, the Internet's packet plumbing. Narad technology extends the scope of Carrier Ethernet into the access network, to complete the connection to Ethernet-based customer premise equipment. We see early and exciting applications of Narad's patents and products by MSOs in providing business services, cellphone backhaul, and residential services including IPTV at 100 Mbps."

Narad has invested 5 years developing and trialing semiconductor, networking, hardware, and software systems products for cable operators. Narad has been awarded 5 patents to date, including FTTC system architecture, system management, traffic management, and RF techniques for high performance coaxial cable transmission. About Narad Networks Narad Networks is a provider of switched broadband access solutions that enable cable operators to leverage existing coaxial cable and flexibly use fiber and wireless media to deliver high capacity, high performance IP services, including voice, data, video, and enterprise networks. The company's QoS switches and service management software, along with its broad spectrum fiber and coax transmission technologies, support multi-gigabit transport for both commercial and residential customers. Narad's patented Ethernet-over-Coax solution meets the needs of coax-based users that have voice or data needs beyond that which cable modems can offer, while Narad's switched Ethernet-over-Fiber solution provides unprecedented IP capacity to fiber-based customers. Narad is currently deployed with North American and European cable operators.

Based in Westford, Massachusetts, Narad is a privately held company with venture funding from Argo Global Capital, Polaris Venture Partners and other leading venture capital firms. For more information, visit www.naradnetworks.com.