NEW TROPOS METROMESH ROUTERS FIRST TO BRING SMART ROUTING TO MULTI-BAND METRO-SCALE WIRELESS MESH NETWORKS

MetroMesh OS Delivers Industry's Only Intelligent, Dynamic Multi-Mode Mesh

SUNNYVALE, CA - August 17, 2006 -- Tropos Networks, the market leader for metro-scale wireless mesh network systems, today announced a new family of Tropos MetroMesh routers, the first in the industry to provide smart routing for multi-band metro-scale wireless mesh networks. The new product family extends the benefits of the Tropos MetroMesh architecture, including the Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP), Adaptive Mesh Connectivity Engine (AMCE) and Tropos Insight, to a wide variety of radio technologies. The first member of this new product family is the Tropos 5320 outdoor MetroMesh router, a dual-band Wi-Fi mesh router. Other products in the MetroMesh router family will include multi-radio routers combining a variety of wireless technologies including MIMO, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz, 3G/4G cellular and more. Tropos Networks also announced the Tropos Metro Wireless Development (TMWD) program, which enables carriers, service providers, spectrum license holders and others to add custom radio interfaces to Tropos MetroMesh routers.

The Tropos 5320, which sports best-of-breed 802.11a and 802.11b/g radios, is the first and only mesh router that can dynamically create multi-band paths through a mesh network. To ensure reliable connections, maximum network design flexibility, and the lowest-cost usable capacity per square mile, both radios can be used simultaneously to form both client and mesh connections. The Tropos 5320 is completely interoperable with the entire family of Tropos MetroMesh routers, enabling easy incremental capacity addition in existing networks without re-engineering or network downtime.

Tropos has significantly enhanced its MetroMesh OS, which is embedded in every Tropos MetroMesh router, including the ability to identify dynamically the combination of links within the mesh that forms the highest performing end-to-end data path from clients to the wired connection to the Internet, even if those links are in different frequency bands. This groundbreaking innovation for metro-scale wireless mesh networks allows service providers and municipalities to use spectrum in the 5 GHz band with the unprecedented flexibility of dynamically shifting to the inherently more reliable 2.4 GHz band for mesh connections in areas where poor 5 GHz propagation causes performance or reliability problems. This flexibility enables the delivery of high capacity mesh networks without the cost associated with the excessive node density necessary with other multi-radio mesh products.

"Mesh vendors without significant outdoor deployment experience throw a bunch of radios in a box and think they're done," said Saar Gillai, Vice President of Engineering for Tropos Networks. "Providing affordable capacity in wireless mesh networks is less about the number of radios in the system and more about the efficiency with which the system uses the spectrum those radios access. That's why Tropos has focused, and continues to focus, on enhancing our mesh protocols to make the most efficient use of spectrum, no matter how many radios are in the system."

The MetroMesh OS intelligently manages multiple radio interfaces automatically, similar to the way a wireline router accommodates multiple Ethernet, Token Ring, WAN and other interfaces. The interfaces provide the patented Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) with additional paths from which it can choose when maximizing end-to-end, client-server throughput. Using this radio-independent approach, Tropos will quickly follow the introduction of the Tropos 5320 with additional multi-radio MetroMesh routers combining Wi-Fi, MIMO, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz, 3G/4G cellular and other unlicensed and licensed radio technologies.

Tropos Networks also announced the Tropos Metro Wireless Development (TMWD) program. The TMWD program enables carriers, service providers, spectrum license holders and others to contract with Tropos to add custom radio interfaces to Tropos MetroMesh routers. This effort brings the benefits of the MetroMesh OS to proprietary radio technologies such as 802.16 running in spectrum outside of the bands defined in WiMAX Forum interoperability profiles as well as 3G/4G cellular technologies.

The Tropos 5320 will begin shipping in October 2006. Tropos Network will roll out additional multi-band MetroMesh routers during the coming year.

About Tropos Networks, Inc.
Tropos® Networks is the market leader in delivering metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh network systems. Our systems have been selected to unwire more major league cities than all competitors combined and are installed in 30 countries. The patented Tropos MetroMeshT architecture delivers the ultimate scalability, high capacity at low cost and great user experience demanded by carriers, municipalities and network users. Our unique expertise includes high-performance mesh software development, mesh RF engineering, metro-scale network planning, deployment and optimization, and navigating the municipal approval process. Tropos Networks is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, please visit www.tropos.com, call 408-331-6800 or write to info@tropos.com.

Tropos is a registered trademark of Tropos Networks, Inc. Tropos Networks, MetroMesh, PWRP, AMCE and Metro-Scale Mesh Networking Defined are trademarks of Tropos Networks, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s).