SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 16, 2006 - Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that its N2X multiservices test solution was used this week in the industry's first validation of IPTV service delivery over Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) and hybrid optical transport networks. The multivendor interoperability test was conducted at Isocore Internetworking Lab and showcased at the MPLS 2006 public demonstration in Washington, D.C. The Agilent N2X was used to validate IPTV and triple-play service delivery and for functional testing of network operations at all layers -- from GMPLS, MPLS to IP and triple-play service delivery. It is the industry's only multiport solution able to emulate the optical control plane to establish the GMPLS network -- as well as verify MPLS-enabled services such as multicast VPN, VPLS and IPTV -- all in one platform. Agilent worked with more than 15 leading MPLS, GMPLS and optical vendors at the Isocore Internetworking Laboratory, and supported both the MPLS/QoS/IPV6 triple-play services and hybrid optical test groups. For the first time in the industry, vendors successfully demonstrated multiservice interworking of ATM-Ethernet with IPTV services across VPLS. The test equipment enabled vendors to troubleshoot interoperability issues and increase confidence in the underlying network's ability to maintain the service quality of experience (QoE). The N2X was used to: Set up label-switched paths by signalling the optical control plane. Once established, multicast traffic was generated to measure Layer 1 VPN traffic performance. Layer 2+ service interworking between ATM and Ethernet was validated for MPLS-enabled services VPLS and Layer-3 VPN. Quantify IPTV service delivery performance over the VPLS network with measurements including media delivery index (MDI), channel zapping (latency) and IGMP join/leave delay. The ability to operate at multiple network layers from within a single, correlated test platform while measuring IPTV service quality for thousands of individual subscribers allows network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and service providers to validate a complete IPTV service deployment faster and more economically. "Agilent N2X was key to verifying the sustained performance of average joint latency of subscribers in an IPTV set up over a scaled multiservice network," said Rajiv Papneja, manager of technology and product evaluation at Isocore. "Agilent's multiservice N2X solution provided necessary tools across multiple layers to measure MDII and channel-zapping performance of test network capable of delivering triple-play services." "During this test event, Sycamore demonstrated dynamic end-to-end 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in a hybrid IP/optical network using GMPLS control plane technology," said Kevin Oye, vice president of systems and technology at Sycamore Networks. "Agilent's N2X allowed Sycamore to verify the stability and scalability of the SN 16000 intelligent optical switch within the multi-vendor application." "The interoperability event highlighted the importance of validating IPTV service delivery under a range of network conditions and topologies," said Rod Unverrich, business manager of Agilent's Data Network Operation. "N2X provides the most scalable environment to allow NEMs and service providers to cost-effectively validate their network's ability to deliver quality IPTV services, and quickly uncover and resolve issues in the underlying network." U.S. Pricing and Availability The Agilent N2X multiservice test solution is available at a starting price of $25,000. More information is available at www.agilent.com/find/n2x. Product photos are available at www.agilent.com/find/N2X_image.