Cisco Delivers Internet Infrastructure for Carrier-Class Voice Quality; New Products Deliver Voice Quality, Scale and Services
April 29, 1998
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced a set of new products, capabilities and relationships that form the first part of a three-part packet voice strategy.
Cisco's strategy is designed to help service providers deliver carrier-class voice quality over lower-cost Internet infrastructures, enabling service providers to scale their offerings and deliver profitable services to their customers.
Key components of today's packet voice announcement include the introduction of a voice/fax feature card for the Cisco AS5300 and AccessPath(TM) systems, a number of key billing relationships and the introduction of Cisco's H.323 Gatekeeper. Cisco supports packet voice over a broad range of access technologies including dial, xDSL and cable, and supports voice transport over the complete range of protocols including IP, ATM and Frame Relay.
Three-Part Strategy for Quality, Scalability and Innovative Services
In the first part of its packet voice strategy, Cisco is delivering carrier-class quality voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions. Part one delivers carrier-class quality in point of presence (POP)-scale solutions and enables a profitable set of basic service offerings. Part two will provide for even greater scaling, and part three will enable the provision of more value-added services.
A key component of the strategy is to enable an open, flexible and easily accessible service creation environment so that service providers and third-party application developers can innovate new services.
"The Cisco packet telephony launch is a major milestone for the telecom industry, because it extends Cisco's leadership in the Internet and other IP-based networks from data to voice," said Alex Sozonoff, vice president and general manager, Computer Marketing and Operations for Hewlett-Packard Co.
"As key strategic partners, HP and Cisco are working together to solidify the benefits of integrated voice/data networks by providing telephony-scale support and service creation capabilities for Internet service providers, local exchange carriers and inter-exchange carriers."
Cisco is also implementing a complementary five-phase data/voice/video strategy for enterprise customers.
Voice/Fax Feature Card for Cisco AS5300, AccessPath
The voice/fax feature card for the Cisco AS5300 universal access server extends the platform functionality to include voice/fax services. Service providers will use the voice-enabled Cisco AS5300 to offer local loop bypass, managed services, international toll arbitrage and fax relay.
The Cisco AS5300 enables voice port densities starting at 60 ports today. Service providers requiring higher densities can use Cisco's AccessPath integrated access system to scale up to 1260 voice ports.
The Cisco AS5300 voice/fax feature card interfaces with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), PBXs and with existing telephones and fax machines through key systems, making the process of placing calls over the IP network transparent to users. The new voice/fax feature card supports several toll-quality coder-decoders (CODECs), including G.711 for high-bit rate applications and G.729 for WAN applications.
The Cisco AS5300 voice/fax feature cards are Cisco's first packet voice product with high-bandwidth digital interfaces (T1/E1) to the PSTN or PBX, and are H.323 compatible, allowing interoperability with other H.323-compliant products.
Proven Carrier-Class Voice Quality
With Cisco's solutions, users are assured of high-quality voice based on Cisco's reputation and experience. "At mediaWays we are continuously seeking methods of providing new enhanced services to our customers at affordable prices. In line with this, we have been participating in a voice-over-IP beta project with Cisco," said Dr. Kurt Smit, chief technology officer at mediaWays GmbH, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG in Germany.
"The voice clarity on Cisco's AS5300 is outstanding. One can not tell that the voice is being carried over an IP network."
Cisco's voice quality comes from the end-to-end Cisco IOS(R) software that delivers Quality of Service (QoS) required by voice applications as well as from the quality of DSPs and CODECs implemented on platforms. Cisco has a full suite of end-to-end networking QoS capabilities.
"The Cisco gateway technology being used in GTE's IP network has enabled us to achieve carrier-class voice quality with measured delays of less than 125 milliseconds between Boston and Palo Alto, Calif.," said Chris Brickler, director of enhanced IP services for GTE. "These quality of service technologies are helping us to achieve a level of service that will meet the needs of our customers."
Billing Relationships: Belle Systems and Portal Software
A key part of any service provider's offering is the ability to bill for the service provided. Billing systems in use today for dial access services can be upgraded to support VoIP access billing. Cisco today announced two key relationships with Belle Systems and Portal Software, Inc. designed to provide service providers with the billing solutions they need.
Belle Systems, a leading Danish software producer specializing in advanced billing and management systems designed for large-scale Internet providers, will provide comprehensive billing support for Cisco's VoIP-enabled routers. This new functionality is being implemented as an additional feature set in Belle System's leading software platform, the Internet Management System (IMS).
This billing and management product supports both dial customers, via TACACS+ or RADIUS, as well as leased-line customers using Cisco's NetFlow implementation. Belle Systems' IMS allows service providers to offer a new range of service including virtual private network (VPN), class of service and volume/distance-based billing to their customer base.
Portal develops and markets scalable and adaptable customer management and billing software for providers of Internet services offering business to business and consumer IP services including dialup, leased line, VPN, bandwidth management, videoconferencing and IP telephony. Portal and Cisco are teaming to offer scalable customer management and billing software for VoIP systems.
Portal's Infranet(R) software will interact with Cisco's VoIP billing interfaces in real time and will deliver powerful functionality to service providers. The combined Portal/Cisco solution will offer tangible benefits such as reduced fraud and bad debt through real-time verification of account and service status, ability to bundle VoIP with other IP services and the ability to quickly create pricing plans tied to QoS metrics.
"Cisco and Portal are well aligned in our vision for the IP-based services market," said Steve Sommer, vice president of marketing and business development at Portal.
"Voice over IP is an excellent example of an IP-based service that demands real-time, intelligent management and usage-based pricing. Cisco's global presence and extensive experience in IP communications combined with Portal's Infranet software delivers a powerful competitive weapon to our customers. "
Cisco H.323 Gatekeeper for Service Providers
Cisco today announced its Multimedia Conference Manager with H.323 Gatekeeper software that enables deployment of scalable VoIP services based up on H.323 standard (see related release titled "Cisco Simplifies H.323 Multimedia Conferencing for Enterprises and Service Providers"). H.323 is the ITU standard for voice and videoconferencing.
The Cisco product provides user authentication, address resolution, bandwidth and zone management services, and generates call detail records for accounting. It is implemented on Cisco IOS software, the common platform that transforms a network into a mission-critical resource.
Provider of Voice over Everything
Cisco's commitment to deliver voice over low cost Internet infrastructures includes VoIP, Voice over Frame Relay (VoFR) and Voice over ATM (VoATM), in addition to VoIP over ATM. Cisco's VoIP solutions span customer premise equipment (CPE), dial platforms, xDSL, cable and dedicated access platforms.
With the introduction of the Cisco AS5300 voice/fax feature card, Cisco Voice Manager and the voice-enabled Cisco 2600 series and Cisco 3600 series, Cisco has a broad range of end-to-end packet telephony gateway solutions. During 1998, Cisco will continue to add to its suite of VoIP products, announcing lower-end and larger-scale, higher-density digital voice packet gateways on a variety of Cisco platforms.
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at cisco.com.
Note to Editors: AccessPath is a trademark, and Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Cisco Systems, Inc. | Clare Whitecross, 408/525-2957 | cwhitecr@cisco.com | Mary Thurber, 408/526-8893 | mthurber@cisco.com
[Copyright 1998, Business Wire]
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