COMPANY CONTACT:                          EDITORIAL CONTACTS:
Mike Sanders                                        Deana Murchison (for Netcom)
Director, Market Development                 Shocom, Inc.
818.676.2325                                        818.735.9703
mike_sanders@netcomsystems.com      deana@shocom.com

                                                            Mariana Haven 
                                                            Hammer Technologies
                                                            978.661.1216
                                                            mhaven@ham.com

CALABASAS, Calif., April 25, 2000, Netcom Systems, the leader in network performance measurement and analysis, and Hammer Technologies, the industry standard for voice and network protocol conformance testing, today announced a business partnership to jointly develop a "best of breed" series of comprehensive router test applications.  The first offering from this strategic partnership is a conformance and a performance suite of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) test solutions running on Netcom's industry leading SmartBitsT system.

Under the terms of the partnership, the companies will integrate the capabilities of Netcom Systems' SmartBits network performance measurement systems with Hammer Technologies' ANVLT network protocol conformance testing software, to develop SmartRouting -- a test solution that will enable Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs) to test the conformance and performance of their BGP routers.

The SmartRouting application will be designed to evaluate the performance of Quality of Service (QoS) enabled BGP routers under typical or extreme traffic loads.  SmartRouting will test BGP router response to all types of network events and qualifies BGP routers during development, quality assurance, and final regression testing.
 
Included in the SmartRouting application is a BGP routing stack that allows each SmartBits port to act as peer router to the endpoints in the device under test.  Three key performance tests are also included: Stable Forwarding Test, Route Flapping Test, and Route Failover Test.  An easy-to-use GUI enables the user to configure millions of routes and assign the routes to specific ports to simulate real world distributions.

"We're thrilled to work with Netcom to marry our protocol testing expertise with Netcom's SmartBits to create SmartRouting.  We believe the fruits of this partnership will allow our customers to enjoy the most comprehensive test solutions faster than ever before," said Steve Gladstone, General Manager of Hammer. 
"Combining the power of SmartBits with the routing test technology of Hammer will, for the first time, satisfy the need for both conformance and performance testing on the same platform," said Bahaa Moukadam, senior director of product marketing for Netcom Systems.  "Additional routing test solutions for OSPF, IS-IS, and other routing protocols will be introduced over the next several months as a result of this partnership."

The jointly-developed SmartRoutingBGP test application will be available in Q3 through Netcom Systems for a starting price of $20,000.
 

About Hammer Technologies
 Based in Wilmington, Mass., Hammer Technologies, a Teradyne company, was founded in 1991.  Hammer Technologies provides the Hammer family of voice and data testing products.  Hammers are in use today by developers of computer telephony, advanced switching, VoIP, and enhanced services systems, most of the regional Bell Operating companies and long-distance carriers, and at call centers of numerous Fortune 100 companies.  Hammer is the only test system that provides a complete solution for load, feature, regression, and in-service testing of integrated telecommunications systems and services.  Additional information on Hammer is available at www.ham.com
 

About Netcom Systems
Netcom Systems' SmartBits products are the industry's only multi-port network performance analysis systems capable of generating and analyzing traffic, at full wire rate, over hundreds of ports for: 10/100/Gigabit, Gigabit Copper, Packet over Sonet, ATM, Frame Relay, WAN, XDSL, Cable Modem, Voice over IP, Multicast IP and TCP/IP.

SmartBits award winning hardware and software applications are used by more than 1100 of the world's leading network equipment manufacturers, network service providers, corporate enterprises and test laboratories to measure the performance and services of networks and network devices.

For more information on Netcom Systems, a SPIRENT Company, visit www.netcomsystems.com.