Dulles, VA. May 3, 2004 – Encore Networks, a leading developer of secure converged broadband solutions over satellite and terrestrial IP networks, today announced the release of its operating software, ELIOS™ 5.0. Available immediately, ELIOS™ 5.0 supports a common feature set across all platforms of the entire Encore Networks broadband product line, including the BANDIT™ IP+Legacy VPN router, BANDIT™-Plus host VPN gateway, and the VSR-30™ satellite VPN router.

With its enhanced capability and functionality, ELIOS™ 5.0 continues to raise the bar on supporting a broad range of applications while optimizing performance and decreasing complexity in both carriers and enterprise networks. Customers can benefit from the built-in, robust set of security, convergence and networking features including; IP routing, QoS, stateful inspection firewall, IP VPNs, dial backup and fail-over, extensive legacy data protocol support, and Encore Network's exclusive patent pending breakthrough Selective Layer Encryption (SLE™).

With feature-rich broadband solutions for IP+Legacy convergence, IP VPNs, and enhanced QoS for VoIP applications, satellite and terrestrial carriers, as well as enterprise customers now have the ability to smoothly migrate additional legacy networks to a single core IP network, while at the same time improve network performance and reduce operational overhead.

“With the release of ELIOS™ 5.0, Encore continues to pave the way for customers who need to make the move from legacy networks to secure, converged, broadband VPN’s,” stated Abir Hnidi, Encore Networks Chief Technical Officer. “The enhanced features of this highly scalable software release will meet new application needs and optimize their performance over broadband satellite and terrestrial networks.”

The new software enhancements and product features of the ELIOS™ 5.0 operating system include:

Enhanced VPN Platform Offering Over Satellite and Terrestrial Networks
The Selective Layer Encryption (SLE™) feature of ELIOS™ 5.0 has been enhanced to interoperate with a broader list of satellite modem and VSAT terminal vendors. SLE™ allows simultaneous encryption and acceleration of TCP through any Performance Enhancing Proxy implementation and can significantly boost the performance of end-to-end IP VPN solutions over all hybrid satellite and terrestrial networks. Benchmark testing by several carriers and modem vendors concluded that IP VPN performance over long-delay satellite networks using SLE™ is far superior than other off-the-shelf HW or SW based IP VPN solutions. This allows the end users full utilization of satellite link bandwidth.

High Availability and Redundancy Solutions For Host Applications
ELIOS™ 5.0 added the support of key features that significantly improve the level of redundancy and high availability of mission critical applications. VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) and Encore’s innovative VBRS (Virtual Broadband Redundancy System) protocols offer highly available solutions for both IP and legacy host applications. These features avoid creating a single point of failure to maximize network connectivity and productivity. Carriers can rely on them to meet their SLA guarantees.

Broadband Solutions for IP+Legacy Applications
ELIOS™ 5.0 adds to the extensive library of legacy protocols currently supported by Encore’s line of VPN appliances and expands Encore’s reach into additional vertical markets such as banking ATM networks, retail point-of-sale terminals, lottery and travel reservation networks. Additional legacy protocols supported by ELIOS™ 5.0 includes VISA II, MATIP-B, SDLC, NCP Bypass, and SDLC to IP conversion with spoofing.

Enhanced IP Quality of Service (QOS) Features Supports VoIP and Other Delay Sensitive Applications
ELIOS™ 5.0 extends IP QoS functionality to allow multi-level prioritization of different applications over a single broadband connection. IP packet tagging and classification of VoIP, VPN, or Internet traffic empowers enhanced priority queuing and robust dynamic flow-based bandwidth allocation. ELIOS™ 5.0 ensures that diverse applications with different performance requirements are handled and processed appropriately.

“The sizable number of SNA terminals and other legacy devices still operating on leased lines can now migrate to an IP service with assurances of privacy, high availability, and forward compatibility,” said William Flanagan, President of Flanagan Consulting. “Robust and proven handling of legacy protocols, combined with highly secure encryption and TCP acceleration over satellite, remove the remaining barriers to updating the transport network. The ability to bypass the front end processor allows updating the host and the network without the huge cost of changing all terminals and retraining the users.”