For the seventh year in a row, VoIP-equipment provider Patton (News - Alert) has won a Product of the Year award from Internet Telephony (News - Alert) magazine. This time, the winning product was the SmartNode 5400 Enterprise Session Border Router. The product is designed to offer a one-step CPE solution to both providers and enterprises to ensure fast and cost-effective implementation of SIP-trunking.

Executive Vice President Burton A. Patton expressed the organization’s appreciation for the prestigious award. “It truly affirms the power of SmartNode to remove crucial barriers—security, stability, interoperability, and voice quality—to widespread adoption of SIP trunking.”

"I am happy to grant Patton our INTERNET TELEPHONY(R) Product-of-the-Year award," said TMC (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani. “Our editors confirm Patton's SN5400/2GS addresses real needs in the SIP-trunking and unified-communication markets. We congratulate the entire team at Patton for delivering high quality, reliability and innovation while advancing IP communication technologies year after year after year."

The Patton SmartNode 5400 reduces an enterprise’s equipment expenses by eliminating the requirement for an external broadband modem. The product comes with an integrated high-speed ITU G.991.2 WAN-access port. The port delivers speeds up to 11.38 Mbps over dual copper twisted pairs.

SmartNode also boasts proven interoperability by its worldwide deployment in carrier and enterprise networks. Its Session Border Controller securely connects iPBXs and ITSPs. Simultaneously, the SBC provides delivers any-to-any protocol mediation for SIP, H.323 voice and G.711 and T.38 fax. In addition, by transcoding industry-standard voice CODECs, the SmartNode provides toll-quality voice over corporate LANs while at the same time optimizing WAN utilization. With WAN optimization, users get accelerated performance related to file downloads, video conferencing and cloud-based services.

Many businesses are switching to SIP-trunking, which allows them to make and receive calls over their data connection. Costs for calls with SIP-trunking are far lower than costs for call made over the Public Switched Telephone Network, which has both aging infrastructure and an outdated pricing system that makes calls to some areas more expensive than calls to other areas.

For businesses that want to transition to SIP-trunking, the key is to have adequate bandwidth capacity, particularly for companies with large call volume. SIP is already cheaper than traditional telephony, and the SmartNode 5400 may reduce enterprise costs even more.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

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