IP proliferates

Supercomm reveals IP's viral spread in all elements of the industry

Let a thousand flowers bloom," said Mao Tse-Tung. The IP world seems to have taken the chairman's advice to heart, working diligently to grow the IP universe in many directions this year - from edge routers and softswitch platforms to service creation architectures and voice-over-IP devices.

Making the switch

Ennovate Networks, a provider of multiservice provisioning solutions, debuted the Envoy 700 multiservice edge switch, a compact frame relay and IP switching platform that will allow facilities-based service providers and those without facilities to deploy services at congested locations and at small points of presence at the edges of their networks.

The Envoy 700 multiservice edge switch, which will be generally available by early September, supports up to 250 T-1 lines in a form factor less than 9 inches high and for a list price of $50,000 in a typical entry-level configuration. That works out to less than $400 per T-1, said Nav Chander, Ennovate's marketing director.

"This is a true multiservice edge switch for smaller sites, the Tier 3 and Tier 4 point-of-presence locations," Chander said. "It's ideal for facilities-based CLECs, for service providers going out of region or for service providers trying to extend their coverage into areas where they typically would have to buy co-location space or buy reseller services."

Approximately 450 U.S. cities have populations of 50,000 to 250,000, Chander said. Those markets are growing but tend to be underserved because service providers have a hard time moving in before they have amassed a subscriber base large enough to make facilities-based service cost-effective, he said.

The Envoy 700 also supports frame relay applications and should help create a competitive market for that technology, Chander said. "A lot of the mission-critical applications in banking, insurance, retail point of sale and brokerage industries use frame relay for their heavy-duty data transfers," he said. "That's not going away soon. This is an opportunity to extend [frame relay] to out-of-market business customers that may only have frame relay available from one service provider in their area."

Convergent Networks unveiled the next release of service features for its carrier-class convergence switch for providing voice over DSL. The release will allow carriers to eliminate Class 5 switch equipment required by today's voice-over-DSL point solutions, while opening a path to the delivery of advanced features.

"We're calling it an advanced VoDSL solution because it's a much more integrated approach than the existing point solutions," said Sally Bament, Convergent's vice president of marketing. "With an integrated approach that calls for less equipment in the network, you greatly simplify the deployment for carriers."

The Convergent switch line replaces ATM access switches, voice gateways and Class 5 switches. It also offers carrier-class scalability, handling more than 8000 ATM adaption layer type 2 (AAL-2) calls per shelf, Bament said. That computes to more than 100,000 potential AAL-2 users with standard oversubscription techniques.

The Convergent switch also supports an open application programming interface for service creation, allowing carriers to roll out enhanced service features quickly and easily.

All about packets

Integral Access announced that its existing PurePacket access system now features support for the media gateway control protocol (MGCP) softswitch call control standard and the addition of intelligent multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) routing. Adding MGCP allows network operators to provide voice services without spending capital for legacy circuit-switched infrastructures such as Class 5 switches.

Integral Access also announced intelligent MPLS routing capability to allow carriers and application service providers to offer grades of IP services.

The PurePacket line is the first multiservice access platform to use Intelligent MPLS routing to create and assign differentiated service levels to specific applications rather than just to traffic streams, said Guy Chenard, vice president of marketing for Integral Access.

"We always had MPLS at the core [of the PurePacket platform]," Chenard said. "With Intelligent MPLS, we added a routing functionality that allows us to identify the type of traffic and class of service at the customer premises and to allow the carrier to provision these services end-to-end, either to the customer or among the participants in a VPN network."

PurePacket provides native integration with next generation, IP-optimized core networks, allowing network operators to keep pace with the standardization of customer premises and core network equipment on IP.

Abatis Systems used Supercomm to introduce its Virtual Enterprise Manager, a carrier-grade management system that allows service providers to extend self-service IP virtual private network (VPN) capabilities to enterprise IT staff, allowing them to activate services, manage bandwidth and view service level agreements for application-tuned IP services.

The aim of the Abatis VEM is to give service providers the capacity to satisfy their enterprise customers' demand for control of their IP VPNs.

Developed as a service layer of the larger Abatis Business Services Architecture, the VEM runs on Sun Microsystems' Solaris and Microsoft's Windows NT Web servers and can be accessed through Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers. The VEM sits behind a carrier's service portal and offers a secure partitioned view of a customer's network with carrier-grade safeguards and application-based management for faults, configuration, accounting, performance and security.

Hearing voices

Ericsson's datacom division announced the release of its IPT 2.0 software for IP telephony, aimed at the service needs of next generation IP network operators who want to add value to their voice services.

"While surveys show that 80% of the traffic will be data, the margins are going to be in voice traffic," said Carol Patterson, senior product marketing manager of access IP products for Ericsson. "It will be important for service providers to have a platform that will allow them to respond quickly, to customize the service level and to provide the reliability in the packet environment that they're used to in the circuit-switched world."

Ericsson's voice-over-IP application provides an open interface that will let service providers generate new products that differentiate them from competitors' offerings.

"IPT's focus is on control and applications," Patterson said. "2.0 is going into the next generation of services, including mobility - in the sense that I can take my customer profile with me."

The software establishes a Home SiteKeeper for a user, similar to the service that Ericsson's mobile platform sets up for an out-of-area user. This SiteKeeper contains a user agent and a service agent that finds out whether a customer has signed up to receive caller ID or has access to a particular VPN.

"Everything travels with you," Patterson said. "Wherever you place a VoIP call from, it goes back to your home user agent to get the network profile telling it who you are and what you're allowed."

The IPT 2.0 software is built on session initiation protocol (SIP), an IP-based protocol that assumes intelligence in the end device.

Pingtel, maker of a Java voice-over-IP Xpressa telephone for service providers and enterprises, kicked off its Great Xpressions application development contest simultaneously at Supercomm and the JavaOne conference in San Francisco.

The contest is part of the Pingtel Xpressor program, a comprehensive developer support program providing the tools required to build, test and deploy Java applications for the Pingtel device. The vendor will send out hundreds of free IP phones to Java developers in return for submitting ideas for new Java applications for the Xpressa.

The contest is open to developers working for independent software vendors; Web-based businesses; voice service providers, including interexchange carriers, incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers; and other developers in the enterprise, consulting and educational sectors. Pingtel's envisions development work in a broad range of new personalized voice services, including applications that will deliver "electronic business cards" with caller ID information or create unique call rings using sound files stored on a PC, said Jim Hourihan, Pingtel marketing vice president.

The company also hopes for occupation-specific applications for telecommuters, customer sales representatives and hourly billing workers such as consultants and lawyers, he said.

In connection with the competition, Pingtel also announced the launch of pingtel.net, a free Internet-to-public network calling service exclusively for Java developers to create and test applications for the Pingtel device. The calling service uses SIP and is powered by Level 3 Communications and WorldCom. dynamicsoft is providing SIP proxy and location servers performing phone registration, location, authentication and routing services for calls originating from or destined to Level 3-registered Pingtel phones.

All access

Broadcom introduced the first in a family of products in its V-thernet line that will enable low-cost, scalable broadband access within multidwelling units (MDUs) and multi-tenant units (MTUs). The new family of integrated circuits will address the challenges of efficiently aggregating and transmitting high-speed data over long reaches in multidwelling buildings using existing wiring.

The first chipset enhances the reach and bandwidth from multiple broadband premise networks - such as Broadcom's Home Phoneline Networking Alliance 2.0 products - to remote basements or wiring centers. The device can be used in customer premises gateway equipment for bridging to a LAN or Home PNA network, as well as in MDU/MTU access, switching or concentrator equipment.

The BCM6315 chip operates over cabling from Category 1 through 5 and supports 10 Mb/s Ethernet on telephone grade wiring for distances up to 1 kilometer - about 10 times the reach of conventional Ethernet - even with the presence of impairments, such as bridged taps and gauge changes. It can also be configured for higher data rates that will support video-on-demand and pay-per-view hotel applications.

"The V-thernet product family provides a high-bandwidth link from the fiber connection to the customer premises without having to install new wires within the building," said Tim Lindenfelser, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's broadband communications business unit. "This `no-new-wires' approach is a cost- effective way for MDU managers or owners to deliver broadband services to their tenants."

DSL equipment manufacturer Orckit Communications also entered the MTU market with its EDSL inTENcity system, integrating Ethernet and very high bit-rate DSL technologies over existing telephone wiring.

The system delivers symmetrical 10 Mb/s per subscriber with an all-inclusive service layer software. Orckit acquired the technology showcased at Supercomm with its purchase of EDSL Networks in May.

The inTENcity software layer can remotely configure, monitor and modify service requirements through its Pay-Per-Surf service application, which facilitates any future upgrade. The service layer enables the provider to implement a successful business model according to its dynamic needs.

Although the industry is accustomed to the IP hype, Supercomm provided a platform for vendors that intend to make the technology more mainstream.