MCI to deploy Ericsson’s Engine

MCI said today it would deploy Ericsson’s Engine solution to migrate its international gateway traffic to carrier-class voice over IP. This carrier-class, standards-based VoIP infrastructure will enable the company to transport voice traffic worldwide on its IP backbone, expand its network functionality and offer next-generation services on a global basis, which is all part of MCI’s global convergence strategy.

The deployment also will provide scalable IP access for customers and partners to MCI’s global voice network and deliver enhanced VoIP features in the future. Building on its domestic VoIP migration plans, MCI is well into the deployment of Ericsson's latest generation voice switching platform into the network. MCI expects to begin transitioning traffic by mid 2005.

MCI’s Engine deployment includes the Ericsson Telephony Server (TeS) which serves as the voice gateway controller and signaling gateway, and the Ericsson Media Gateway (MGW) as the VoIP media path converters. Engine will allow MCI to transfer the function of fixed international switch voice circuits to the dynamic efficiencies of the MCI IP global network. The Media Gateways (MGW) will packetize voice streams that come from the legacy TDM network for transport across the IP backbone. Likewise, MGWs will also convert VoIP packets back to TDM voice streams for transport across the public switched telephone network. Also, by providing MCI with the capability to interconnect existing VoIP networks with SIP and H.323, Engine will also provide MCI the flexibility to connect with global carriers to exchange VoIP traffic regardless of protocol preference.