Metaswitch Networks has said that it’s seeing a boom in multicore applications communications equipment customers are exploiting the benefits of its N-BASE network architecture to efficiently build multicore systems.

A platform abstraction layer and toolset, the N-BASE has been center to the Metaswitch’s approach to portability for over 20 years. Company officials said that it’s proven as a delivery vehicle for network technologies across a huge range of platforms, operating systems and processors.

Company officials said that the N-BASE is particularly well-matched with multiprocessor and multicore platforms since it provides the capability to distribute core protocol code processing across multiple processors or cores in a flexible and efficient manner.

Jon Berger, core development manager for Network Technologies Division at Metaswitch, said that the N-BASE is really suited to multicore network processors like Cavium’s OCTEON.

“You can run a single product component on one core, or multiple components on multiple cores - all without changes to the core code,” Berger said, adding that it all just falls out of the N-BASE architecture, and it does so in a very efficient manner.

Cavium Networks (News - Alert) is a provider of integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications and the digital home

“We’ve worked with Metaswitch on a number of high-profile communications equipment customer developments recently,” said Tasha Castaneda, senior strategic alliance manager at Cavium Networks.

Castaneda said that the company has been impressed by how well their code maps to the multicore environment, and how well it exploits its scalable, high-performance, and low-power processor solutions. “The results show scalable throughput for our customers' network communications equipment.”

Based on its N-BASE network architecture for over twenty years, Metaswitch has developed portable network protocol source code based. The company’s MPLS, IP Routing -- unicast and multicast -- VoIP / IMS and session border controller (SBC) solutions are architected to handle the scale and reliability requirements of the most demanding applications while providing extensibility and a full-feature set.

Company officials said that the portability and feature richness of the N-BASE protocol products, as well as engineering and support, provide communications suppliers with an “unrivaled” technical solution that reduces engineering cost and improves time to market.

Recently, Metaswitch Networks and CounterPath (News - Alert) entered into a strategic, long-term agreement. The relationship includes the joint development and marketing of enhanced unified communications capabilities that extend voice, video and messaging services to desktop PCs and mobile devices.