Nortel spreads interoperability gospel to access and beyond

Taking advantage of the momentum it has gained in the softswitch market of late, Nortel this week said it has opened an interoperability lab in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The lab, the vendor’s first such facility dedicated to wireline interoperability, already is stocked with about a dozen vendors from the DSL, session border control and cable TV sectors. Among the new residents: Acme Packet, AFC, AudioCodes, Carrier Access, Convedia Corporation, General Bandwidth, IP Unity, Netrake, Verilink, and Westell Technologies.

"This lab is all about providing the interoperability testing to promote our leadership in voice over IP," said Matt Jackson, director of VoIP marketing for Nortel. "One of the unique features is that it will be somewhat disjointed from our two main facilities in RTP."

The lab, which will be fully operational by April 1, also will be clearly distinct from an Ottawa VoIP testing facility that Nortel is operating with Bell Canada. (see story). That lab is specifically dedicated to application development as part of Bell Canada’s rollout of Nortel VoIP equipment.

The lab will be focused on the broader mission of completing interoperability testing between Nortel’s Succession Communication Server (CS) 2000 softswitches and its Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5200 with third-party equipment.

AFC, for instance, already has completed most of the testing work between its AccessMAX H.248 gateway and the CS 2000. The combination will give both companies a complete package of softswitch and access platform, said Ryan Koontz, director of marketing at AFC.

"We have a very elegant migration path now," he said. "If we look at the overall market landscape, we view Nortel as definitely the leader."

AFC also believes linking up with Nortel will pay dividends with the industry’s largest players despite the fact that access and switching decisions often are handled by separate groups within those companies.

"We both have a grounded sense of what it’s like to do business with the bigger carriers," Koontz said. "They are a nice complimentary fit because they don’t have a whole lot going on in the access space."