OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/26/07 -- Tropic Networks(R),
the developer of Wavelength Tracker powered metro regional ROADM systems, announced today that it has now confirmed that the combination of three technologies will allow us to measure chromatic dispersion in fiber networks in addition to our existing and field-proven capabilities to uniquely identify wavelengths (including multiple instances of the same ITU grid wavelength), and measure and adapt to fiber loss. The three technologies involved in this
breakthrough are:

- Wavelength Tracker tagging and decoding technology;
- full C-band tunable transponders;
- colorless add/drop capability on our WSS ROADM modules.

Measuring and compensating chromatic dispersion becomes an increasingly important issue in optical transmission networks.
Chromatic dispersion limits the optical network reach and data rate that the network can support. Therefore, determining and compensating chromatic dispersion is a critical step in the building of geographically large and high data rate optical networks.

"This breakthrough is significant in so many ways" said Rob Lane, Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "Having the ability to measure and adjust automatically for chromatic dispersion in-service will reduce network costs as the need for wide-range, per-wavelength unable compensation is eliminated. It will enable the use of lower-cost, pluggable DWDM XFPs on directly-connected client devices that have lower dispersion tolerances. It will allow for automatic network 'tuning' as we move to broader optical mesh deployments and
to 40G transmission speeds. Our customers will experience faster network and service provisioning times, resulting in faster time to revenue and a drop in network costs and spares inventory".

"Traditional methods of accurately compensating for chromatic dispersion typically involve measuring every fiber span in a optical network individually using external dispersion measurement equipment, and applying pre-defined bulk dispersion compensation modules at pre-determined points in the optical network. This makes the existing methods of measuring and compensating for chromatic dispersion expensive, inefficient, intrusive and labor intensive" said Ben Bacque, Vice President, Research and Development. "More recently,
40Gb/s transponder suppliers have been developing per-transponder
tunable dispersion compensation, which drives up transponder costs.
This new Wavelength Tracker capability is unique, in that it will allow us to use lower-cost transponders at both 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s. It is the next step in the evolution of our Wavelength Tracker technology. We have moved the application from its first use as a simple passive wavelength monitoring function, to its use in our closed-loop automated loss adaptation and power control functions, and now we are able to fully characterize the plant for both loss and chromatic dispersion, all using the same Wavelength Tracker hardware that is already in-service. This new capability will be implemented
in an upcoming software release based on existing, proven and deployed hardware."

About Tropic Networks
Tropic Networks offers a new generation of static and reconfigurable
OADM/DWDM solutions to help service providers minimize costs and maximize profits. The Tropic Networks TRX-24000(TM) metro-regional DWDM platform integrated with patented Wavelength Tracker, advanced optical layer management technology, allows service providers to grow, simplify and manage their optical infrastructures, while leveraging existing network assets.

Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Tropic was founded in May 2000. The
company is privately held and venture capital backed.

Contacts:
Tropic Networks Inc.
Tracy Trottier
613-270-5300
ttrottier@tropicnetworks.com