VOIP products to make a splash at NetWorld+Interop show
By Laura Kujubu
InfoWorld Electric
idg.net
Voice Over IP (VOIP) will continue to be a hot topic at next week's NetWorld+Interop in
Las Vegas, with a spate of new product launches.
Looking to carve a niche for itself in the voice/data convergence space, Siemens Business
Communications Systems will reveal its road map to "The Extranet Network of the
Future," which provides customers with a migration path to IP solutions -- including VOIP
-- running over private intranets and the Internet. Siemens' solutions will be packaged in
modules that can be added incrementally.
The first phase of Siemens' IP solutions rollout will be modules, such as Enterprise Intranet
Toll Bypass, in which VOIP takes place over a corporate intranet; and Enterprise IP
Telephony Remote Access, in which branch offices with fewer than 200 employees can
use VOIP and fax over IP by tying into a larger facility that has deployed Enterprise
Intranet Toll Bypass.
"We believe in the next two to three years there will be a mature [VOIP] market, and
we're starting now to see implementation of real-time, communications-ready, IP-based
infrastructures," said Hans Schwarz, senior vice president for Siemens' enterprise network
systems group.
Francois de Repentigny, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, in Mountain View, Calif., noted
that although Siemens' moves are not significant ones, its overall plan is a good one.
"They are really positioning themselves to provide 'complete' solutions with a whole range
of products that an enterprise would need," de Repentigny said.
Meanwhile, Vienna Systems will announce its products -- IPShuttle and IPCourier -- that
allow standard telephones to make calls over IP.
IPShuttle is an analog-to-Ethernet network peripheral that allows telephones to connect to
an IP network. It operates without a PC and can handle two phone circuits. IPShuttle
includes telephony features such as caller ID and call waiting.
IPCourier, which is also not dependent on a PC, is a multiline Ethernet LAN phone that
lets service providers offer IP telephony over IP networks, according to the company. The
product can be linked to a corporate user's PC on a network, enabling it to function as a
tool for call directories and other telephony functions.
Both Vienna Systems products will be available this month and will cost $599.
Also, Nuera Communications -- a provider of frame-relay and VOIP products and
technologies -- will introduce its Access Plus F50ip, a VOIP gateway, which the company
said is designed to accommodate the growth of branch offices within an enterprise. F50ip
can run both VOIP and frame relay concurrently and allow network routing on a
call-by-call basis.
Access Plus F50ip comes standard with as many as four analog voice channels and can be
upgraded to as many as 30 channels. The Access Plus F50ip is available this month and
costs $4,895.
Siemens Business Communications Systems Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at
siemenscom.com. Vienna Systems Corp., an affiliate of Newbridge Networks
Corp. in Kanata, Ontario, can be reached at viennasys.com. Nuera
Communications Inc., in San Diego, can be reached at nuera.com.
Laura Kujubu is a reporter for InfoWorld.
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Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Associate News Editor Carolyn April.
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