"Carrier grade" is a term for public network telecommunications products that require a reliability percentage up to 5 or 6 nines. The Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) specification, issued by network equipment providers (Alcatel, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Nokia, NTT Group), system integrators (HP, IBM, Sun), platform providers (Intel, Force Computers), Linux distributors (MontaVista, Miracle Linux, SuSE, Turbolinux), and independent contributors, defines requirements for Linux and Linux-based software components as the basis for highly available and robust communications products meeting requirements in various areas such as reliability, security, and scalability.