Internet Initiative Japan : Stratosphere and Bosco Technologies to Install OmniSphere in the Osaka City University Graduate School of Engineering to Support SDN Research

Stratosphere Inc. (Stratosphere) and Bosco Technologies Inc. (Bosco Technologies) today announced that they will provide the Osaka City University Graduate School of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering with OmniSphere, a technology that creates virtual office networks using SDN (*1) technology, and that they will support research on future network architectures conducted by Bosco Technologies and Osaka City University.

Stratosphere and Bosco Technologies have cooperated as business partners in the planning, research, and development of virtual network control software utilizing SDN. Both companies are also involved in developing the SDN market through marketing, drafting proposals, and other activities.

Stratosphere's OmniSphere was selected as a subject for research, which Bosco Technologies and Osaka City University are jointly conducting, on the methods of constructing user-oriented networks using SDN. OmniSphere was chosen due to its demonstrated ability to dynamically build virtual networks based on user or terminal authentication.

The number of users accessing networks continues to rise with the recent, dramatic proliferation of computer network. One factor contributing to this proliferation is the advent of simple routing. Networks have grown easily because transmission destinations in current networks are determined by destination IP addresses. However, this method is unable to deliver the high reliability and efficiency that future networks will require. For this reason, new network architectures that can replace existing networks are necessary. Osaka City University is engaged in creating new network architectures that can be used in future networks, and it is researching recently proposed SDN and CCN as practical methods for implementing future network architectures.

Stratosphere will exhibit OmniSphere at Interop Tokyo 2014, to be held from Wednesday, June 11, through Friday, June 13, in Makuhari Messe.

• (*1) Software defined networking (SDN): A next-generation network concept in which the entire network is controlled (defined) by software in order to dynamically configure the network.

Stratosphere launched OmniSphere in June 2013 as an SDN solution for building flexible, virtual L2 networks on top of physical corporate networks. OmniSphere allows clients to connect and manage terminals such as PCs or smart devices, physical servers, and cloud servers on a single virtual network by straddling wide-area networks that connect offices on different floors or in different locations. This system enables users to automatically configure LAN and wireless LAN office networks simply by authenticating user (employee) terminals, which previously had to be reconstructed and reconfigured whenever there was an organizational change or change in office layout. This greatly reduces the operational and administrative overhead associated with corporate networks.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents furnished by Internet Initiative Japan Inc. with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 20-F and 6-K, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.