Nascent network fusion: Motorola, Vsys meld data, voice networks

Motorola and Vsys have thrown their collective hats into the increasingly crowded market of vendors charting the course for converged data and voice networks. The companies last week announced an agreement in which Motorola will include Vsys technology within its product offerings.

Vsys, a software developer based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is building its reputation in the switch software market. From 1993 to 1998, the company subsisted as a custom development and services firm. After deregulation and the onslaught of the Internet, Vsys shifted into full-time product development and produced VSwitch.

Within the network, VSwitch resembles an Internet protocol voice gateway in the IP network and behaves like an SS7 network element in the public network, allowing public network services to be transferred to an IP network.

"VSwitch can integrate with the [public network], and it supports H.323 and SS7, which has been one of the hardest things companies are running against," said Bardia Saeedi, CEO at Vsys. "We're protocol-agnostic, and in the next release we will add support for SGCP/MGCP."

Motorola will include VSwitch in the next release of its Vanguard 5.4 voice gateway. Engineers are developing the H.323 remote access server applications that will connect to VSwitch.

The combined products will allow IP networks to have voice, data and fax capabilities, as well as billing and customer care services. It also will enable public network features such as call waiting, call forwarding and follow-me roaming in IP voice networks.

"We haven't seen any other companies in this space that have actual product," said Eric Larson, director of networking for Motorola Internet and Networking Group. "Companies are talking about doing it, but we haven't seen anyone implement it. The Vsys partnership gives us a head start in making this type of network happen."

As a relative unknown, Vsys is playing catch-up in the name recognition race. "Our biggest challenge is a crowded marketplace - that will only get more crowded - with various big names," said Saeedi. "To overcome the challenge, we plan to partner with large vendors and large customers. It's a new market where anyone can win."