Comverse (News - Alert), a supplier of software and systems facilitating network-based multimedia improved communication and billing services, has announced the launch of the new version of its Comverse Netcentrex (News - Alert) Open Media Platform (OMP). Combining Intelligent Peripheral and Media Resource Function (MRF) capabilities on the same platform, this is an advanced, fully-featured, standards-based media platform.

 

Offering a first step in the migration to an IMS network, the OMP is an ideal replacement solution for aging Intelligent Peripherals with an IMS Media Resource Function (MRF) on the same platform. The IMS MRF is the media resource involved in all interactive voice and video communication services in IMS networks.

 

Providing full network connectivity for PSTN, PLMN and IMS networks, OMP is a carrier-class solution. Leveraging field-proven technologies that are a result of 15 years’ experience in VoIP and IN network solutions and deployments, the platform is also highly scalable, making it suitable for deployments of all sizes.

 

A flexible solution that will reduce maintenance costs is always in demand for operators who need to replace Intelligent Peripherals. Also, the solution should ideally evolve with their needs in terms of network architecture, IMS migration and features. As most Intelligent Peripherals are expensive to operate and complicated to update, there is a huge demand for solutions built on open platform architectures. These solutions use standards-based hardware and software and support advanced features like text to speech, speech recognition or VoiceXML (News - Alert) script execution.

 

Located in the service provider’s core network, an Intelligent Peripheral (also known as the Specialized Resource Function or SRF) provides all the resources required for various applications. They include network announcements, prepaid calling cards, wireless Centrex (virtual PBX (News - Alert)), toll free numbers and wake up calls, plus advanced features such as speech recognition, text-to-speech and VoiceXML script execution.

 

“Many Intelligent Peripherals were deployed over a decade ago as proprietary systems, and are reaching end-of-life. Others lack the features required for today’s increasingly sophisticated communication networks,” commented John Bunyan, Comverse chief marketing officer. “We are in the process of deploying the OMP SRF/MRF with two leading European operators. With OMP they seamlessly enriched their Intelligent Network with advanced features like speech recognition, text-to-speech and VoiceXML script execution and in addition, with the combined MRF functions on the same platform, they secure their investment and reduce operating costs.”