CoSine jumps on triple play bandwagon

CoSine Communications today joined the rush of vendors getting into the video market, announcing new services-centric B-RAS features for its IPSX 9500 and 3500 Service Processing switches.

However, unlike many an access vendor trying to chase the elusive triple play dollar, CoSine’s strategy includes something of a business plan to go with the physical equipment. Based on the idea that carriers need to get past flat-rate services, the company has created Virtual Subscriber Identity (VSI) and Virtualized Multicast.

With the VSI feature, a customer’s profile is applied to all types of broadband access, letting carriers offer the same service anywhere the consumer happens to be located.

"Right now, everything is based on physical networks," said Susan Almeida, executive director of product and strategic marketing.

VSI creates a dynamic virtual instance of the consumer’s preferences, allowing them to access any broadband service over their preferred medium including computer, wireless phone or local hotspot connection.

The Virtualized Multicast lets carriers open up the number of content providers served up to users. Labeled Open Contribution Distribution by CoSine, the ides is to allow service providers to make content distribution more available to a broader array of providers including small Net-based entrepreneurs. Open Content Distribution also combines Virtualized Multicast with a managed VPN, letting thousands of content providers to simultaneous broadcast independently from each other.

The key in both cases is the de-centralized processing in CoSine’s B-RAS platform, Almeida said.

"Current B-RAS infrastructure is designed for a different era," she said. "Central processing is the Achilles’ heel."

Using a de-centralized approach allows the company’s B-RAS to handle significantly more traffic. In the Virtual Multicast, for instance, each channel is put on its own VPN link between content provider and consumer.

"The exciting part is that service providers now have an economic way to scale up mass distribution of video content," Almeida said.