Siemens spinoff Unisphere Networks, of Westford, MA, a supplier of IP infrastructure to enable broadband data and voice services, and specialising in edge routing, announced the introduction and immediate availability of the MRX, which the Unisphere announcement described as "the industry's first multi-service edge router". The company said the MRX was designed to meet the multi-service requirements at the edge of service provider networks by integrating carrier-class IP routing, native ATM switching, MPLS and IP services, all in a single platform. Capacity can be scaled from 40 Gbit/s to 320 Gbit/s.

The Unisphere announcement claimed that with a wide range of optical interfaces from OC-3 to OC-48 and GBE, powered by a field-proven OS, the MRX provided the ability to mix and match port speeds, and for the first time, mix and match native ATM, POS and MPLS protocols on a single line module - a unique any service, any port, any channel capability which Unisphere said made the MRX a more cost-effective choice for incumbent service provider networks that require both ATM and IP functionality. Unisphere said the capacity and service delivery of the MRX could be used in a number of service provider edge applications, such as circuit aggregation and MANs, where GBE was the transport option of choice.

The Unisphere Networks announcement quoted James Dolce, president and CEO, as saying the company had designed the MRX to meet the evolving edge requirements of incumbent service providers around the world, and added that the MRX combined IP routing and ATM switching capabilities in a single, integrated product, which enabled service providers to expand their service portfolios across both ATM-based and IP-based networks with a platform that provided a migration path to a common IP-based network.