Outline

1. Multi-site small/medium business (SMB) WANs:responding to the challenges and opportunities of last mile access

2. Outline • A bit of background on ePipe • The rise of broadband • Defining the needs of distributed business leveraging broadband access solutions • Reality hits: last mile challenges • A timely solution: Layer 3 bonding (ML-IP) • Illustration of ML-IP operation • ML-IP deployment enhancing broadband • Service provider, ISP and ASP deployments • Conclusion

3. The Broadband Revolution is Coming! • Broadband adoption for low cost, high bandwidth is booming • Internet usage continues to grow • Businesses becoming Internet-dependent • VPN accepted and deployed as a cost-effective alternative to costly frame relay • Last mile access can either hinder or help depending on what is available! The revolution has begun… • Hot applications: • File sharing • Image transfer • Financial services • Collaborative development • Extranets with suppliers • Advanced retail transactions and training

4. The Impact of Broadband Broadband • 56% of businesses view their BB service as indispensable • Business class options w/ SLAs growing daily • 300 million residential and commercial locations by 2007 • Growth rates predicted of 30-70% per year depending on location and broadband type • Broadband enables: • Cost-effective VPNs • Productive telecommuting • Business Internet use • Distance learning • Advanced retail apps • Extranets with suppliers and customers • Much more…. Broadband enables incredible application connectivity at a very accessible price!

5. What does this mean for SMBs? • > 6 million SMBs in North America • > 65% SMBs are connecting multiple offices • VPN use by these SMBs will double in 2002 Easy to implement, affordable VPNs, Internet access and other applications + affordable broadband = revolutionary networking! SMBs are the backbone of the economy. Broadband brings effective, affordable data access to this critical market segment!

6. Are all needs being met though? What multi-site SMBs really want from their last-mile solution to be truly effective: • Bandwidth flexibility: buy only what they need from who they want, at the start and as they grow • Cost-effectiveness: price must be reasonable and commensurate with business enabled • High availability: can’t afford downtime and loss of $, and refuse to pay for unused redundant links • Ubiquity across locations: must be universally deployable Sound like reasonable requests, but the industry isn’t quite there yet….

7. Today’s reality… How does reality of today match up to the last mile needs of SMBs? • Bandwidth flexibility: buy only what they need from who they want, at the start and as they grow • Cost-effectiveness: price must be reasonable and commensurate with business enabled • High availability: can’t afford downtime and loss of $, and refuse to pay for unused redundant links • Ubiquity across locations: must be universally deployable Location can’t get broadband, so they are stuck with inflexible slow dial modem They want the power of frame at HQ, but can’t afford FR cost at branches They love broadband but it’s not reliable Unavailability of some solutions at locations means non-ubiquitous solution

8. Inverse Multiplexing 1st generation ML-PPP, MFR, IMA 2nd generation ML-IP 3rd generation Enter ePipe’s ML-IP Multilink IP (ML-IP) boosts the bandwidth and uptime of a VPN, WAN or Internet Access solution by utilizing transparent link aggregation with fail over that is independent of access technology or network provider, allowing customers to scale their bandwidth at any location, on demand. ML-IP provides true aggregation bonding – notperformance-limited load balancing or sharing!

9. How Does ML-IP Address Key Customer Requirements?

10. ML-IP tunnels Site-Site ML-IP Link Aggregation Dial Backup (up to 4 bonded modems) PSTN Any IP Application Any IP Application N x xDSL,cable, leased lines (aggregated) N x xDSL,cable leased lines (aggregated) M ML-IP ML-IP M M M M FW/VPN FW/VPN IP Network A New York Chicago POP POP Receive, de-encapsulate and de-fragment Fragment, encapsulate and forward POP POP IP Network B • A fully bonded solution from site to site: • high reliability • high bandwidth • no need for provider involvement Plus balanced Internet access!

11. ISP Multilink IP Service A fully bonded solution from network edge to customer site: • Faster customer access to customer Web site • Faster Internet access and e-commerce • Faster VPNs with Checkpoint, Cisco etc Email server Access Provider Service Provider Internet M ML-IP CPE DSLAM SMS M M Web server FW/ VPN 1-3 xDSL,Cableor leased lines (aggregated) ML-IP Concentrator Customer 1 Customer 2 ML-IP tunnel Customer N

12. ASP Multilink IP Service A fully bonded solution from ASP to customer site: • More advanced, high bandwidth applications • Reliability to insure customer access to applications • Lower latency for better application performance IBM SAP ML-IP Concentrator Access Provider Internet M ML-IP CPE DSLAM R M Application Service Provider M FW/ VPN FW/ VPN 1-3 xDSL or leased lines (aggregated) High speed link (eg T-3) Customer 1 Customer 2 ML-IP tunnels Customer N

13. Unique Advantages of ML-IP Layer 3 Bonding for VPNs • Link type agnostic • Use the transport provider of your choice – even use multiple transport providers • No need to involve service provider to deploy • Compatible with any IP-based application • Fragmentation = low latency + added security • Support of asymmetrical (many to any) links match real-world implementations ML-IP bridges the gap!

14. Conclusion • Broadband access is a revolutionizing technology that could redefine how business is done • Today broadband solutions have significant last-mile issues in search of a good solution. • Businesses keep evolving faster than networks can manage, so solutions need to be customer-centric, not network-centric • Technologies like ML-IP are the future: enabling reliable bandwidth without tying customers to specific access or transport networks For more info on ML-IP visit us on the web at www.ml-ip.com