Veraz Networks, a provider of Multimedia Generation Network application, control, and bandwidth optimization products, today announced its latest media gateway solution, the I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP Gateway (News - Alert) (GW).

 

This new SIP Gateway allows for seamlessly integration with existing PBX (News - Alert) and PSTN switches, thus enabling service providers to offer competitive services at an affordable cost without replacing their current equipment.

 

It also provides high voice compression while maintaining toll quality, significantly reducing bandwidth and routing resource expenses while the redundant architecture and high processing capacity delivers high reliability.

 

Gus Elmer, Corporate Marketing, Veraz Networks discusses this latest product release with Technology Marketing Corporation, explains its benefits and how it will change the VoIP landscape for many businesses.

 

 

GE: Veraz Networks is a leading global provider of application, control, and bandwidth optimization products that enable the evolution to the Multimedia Generation Network (MGN). Service providers worldwide use the Veraz MGN portfolio to extend their current application suite and rapidly add customized multimedia services that drive revenue and ensure customer retention. Veraz’s MGN architecture provides products at each layer of the network—media, control, and application—that enable incremental network evolution, while enhancing revenue generation capability and increasing service providers' operating efficiency.

 

The following products are part of Veraz’s MGN portfolio:

 

Media and Bandwidth Optimization Layer:

-- I-GATE 4000 family of media gateways for media transcoding and delivery of true wireline voice quality over packet networks.

-- I-GATE 4000 Session Bandwidth Optimizer (SBO) for VoIP bandwidth compression and IP optimization.

-- DTX-600 DCME for TDM voice compression with toll quality performance.

 

Control Layer:

-- ControlSwitch for optimal any-to-any signaling and transport of data, while providing centralized control.

-- Network-adaptive Border Controller for security and session management.

 

Service Delivery Layer:

-- Veraz Open Service Broker, the Veraz Application Server and the Veraz Policy Engine and HSS for customization and delivery of any application across any access network.

verazVirtu multimedia softclient.

 

Management Layer:

-- VerazView Element Management System providing a single view of the entire network for simplified network management and reduced OPEX (News - Alert). 

 

Veraz has over 100 customers in over 60 countries, among them: Belgacom International Carrier Services, Celtel, Excel, Golden Telecom, Hutchison, OneMax, Orange Business Services (News - Alert), PCCW, Primus Telecommunications, Reliance Infocomm, Spice, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom New Zealand, Vimplecom, Vodacom, and Vodafone (News - Alert).

 

GE: VoIP technology is now becoming embedded in a wide array of applications well beyond person-to-person calling. Veraz expects VoIP to become standard on mobile handsets in the relatively near future and become increasingly a common capability on the Web. Gaming and dating services are two examples of Internet-based services in which VoIP has become embedded as a natural extension of the service.

 

 

GE: We see two fundamental drivers for enterprise VoIP adoption. The first is significantly lower cost relative to their existing legacy voice infrastructure. The second is the potential offered by VoIP for integration of voice calling with IT infrastructure to enable unified communications.

 

 

GE: The initial focus for most business VoIP projects was focused on cost reduction through removal of legacy PBXs and integration of voice with IT infrastructure. Much of the benefits for these initiatives could be achieved without changing their voice services beyond the building. In almost every case, businesses continue to need connectivity to the PSTN and the easiest way to get that was through legacy (e.g. TDM) infrastructure.

 

We expect to see increasing demand though for SIP trunking as enterprises expand beyond the IP PBX look to leverage new SIP-based carrier services. At the same time, for many, the existing PBX works fine and SIP gateway products like the I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP Gateway allow them to take advantage of lower cost SIP services without forklift upgrades of their internal network.

GE: SIP Gateways like the I-GATE 4000 EDGE SIP Gateway enable remote sites to use lower cost IP phone solutions and tie them into rest of the enterprise through IP. The alternative is to use more expensive legacy TDM equipment and interconnect services. SIP Gateways therefore save enterprise customers money by both reducing their capital requirements within the building and reducing their monthly network services expenses.

 

GE: The I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP Gateway is a compact, feature-rich SIP gateway designed to interconnect TDM networks with SIP/IP for voice, fax and data services. While more and more businesses adopt VoIP technology internally, most businesses continue to rely on the large embedded base of enterprise TDM equipment for voice services. SIP PRI gateways like the I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP gateway allow service providers to reduce the cost to provide service to these customers as well as cost effectively reach new customers through IP instead of costly TDM infrastructure. In addition, SIP PRI gateways enable enterprise customers to extend their PBX functionality to remote locations using IP without deploying additional TDM/PBX infrastructure.

 

The I-Gate 4000’s key differentiators include:

 

Six 9’s reliability to ensure high availability. No other comparable product supports full system redundancy which means their availability figures will be below five 9s. High reliability is especially important because this product will typically be placed on the customer premises and not a service provider building which means getting access to it in the event of a failure may be difficult and time-consuming.

30 – 50 percent reduction in size for the same maximum traffic load. The I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP Gateway provides sustained high call-handling performance independent of traffic load. Other products of similar size and capacity cannot support their claimed maximum performance (e.g. call setups per second) when close to their maximum capacity (e.g. simultaneous calls).

Easy to use and comprehensive digital handling and call routing features. Relative to competitive products, the I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP GW configuration process is straightforward for the operator. In addition, it supports a comprehensive set of digit handling and call routing capabilities.

Demonstrated multi-vendor interoperability. We have already demonstrated live interoperability with a widely deployed 3rd party softswitch and expect based on our experience with media gateways that the I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP GW will be easy to interwork with other vendors products.

Industry-leading compression with toll-quality voice. The I-Gate 4000 EDGE SIP GW leverages the compression technology behind the I-Gate 4000 media gateway family to provide industry leading compression levels without sacrificing voice quality.

 

 

GE: Over the next 10 years, Veraz believes that VoIP will become the dominant way for people to connect and talk.