<<<<The SS7 network carries services, such as caller ID and call forwarding, in parallel and concurrently to data or voice traffic.
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curtis
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Cisco will introduce the (SS7) Signaling Controller
June 8, 1998
PC Week via NewsEdge Corporation : Cisco Systems Inc. this week will continue its push into large-scale carrier data networks with products that enable lower access costs and more advanced services.
Cisco will introduce the Signaling Controller 2200 for interfacing data access equipment with an SS7 (Signaling System 7) network. The San Jose, Calif., company will also debut the CT3 T-3 card, which squeezes 28 T-1 lines onto a single module, sources said.
The SS7 network carries services, such as caller ID and call forwarding, in parallel and concurrently to data or voice traffic.
"The two products in combination will save a corporate user a lot of money, and SS7 will also improve service," said Ray Keneipp, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc., in Sterling, Va. "SS7 helps avoid busy signals and gives users better control when setting service-level agreements with carriers. "
The Signaling Controller 2200 will reside on a Cisco-branded Sun Microsystems Inc. workstation and connect to Cisco's AS5X00 access concentrators. The product, a result of Cisco's acquisition of LightSpeed International Inc. last year, then controls advanced services on an SS7 network, which is traditionally associated with voice but is being applied to data networks.
SS7 makes voice-over-IP service more feasible, since users will be able to tap such services as caller ID and call forwarding.
Cisco's platform can be updated within six weeks to accommodate minor technical differences in SS7 implementations overseas, sources said.
Due this week, the Signaling Controller 2200 will cost $125 per 64K-bps channel. Cisco's access support will range from 48 channels on the AS5200 to several thousand channels on the AccessPath concentrator. The 2200 will support up to 10,000 dial-up users, according to sources.
One shortcoming, said Keneipp, is management. "Cisco has acquired so many companies, they have a hard time integrating management; so you end up with two management platforms, one for the access hardware and one for the 2200 controller," he said.
Bay Networks Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., last week announced an SS7 gateway of its own for its Versalar concentrators, which also runs on a Sun Solaris platform.
Cisco will also debut this week the CT3 channelized T-3 card for the high-end AS5800 access concentrator, sources said.
A T-3 line is equivalent to 28 T-1 lines. As a result, a T-3 can terminate 672 dial-up calls on a single line card. Additionally, unlike existing T-3 cards, which typically connect to additional T-1 cards to terminate calls, the CT3 terminates the traffic itself.
Each AS5800 concentrator can accommodate two CT3 cards, which will ship in August for $30,000, according to the sources.
Cisco officials declined to comment on unannounced products. |
