Nortel Introduces IPConnect-Carrier-Class, Business-Ready IP Telephony
Solutions
[[Teams with AGIS]]
July 1, 1998
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, June 30
/PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation -- Nortel
(Northern Telecom) (NYSE: NT/TSE: NTL) has combined
the rich feature menu and reliability of the voice network
with the efficiencies of the IP network into its new
IPConnect Voice over IP/IP telephony portfolio. The
industry's first VoIP set of solutions to recognize that
one platform does not satisfy all networking needs,
IPConnect will allow service providers to offer their
customers true business telephony services over a
managed, carrier-grade network.
''This IPConnect portfolio starts the realization of
Nortel's vision of delivering webtone -- the IP
multiservice network of the future,'' said Clarence J.
Chandran, president, Nortel Public Carrier Networks.
''As the industry moves from circuit-switched networks
to packet networks, Nortel will lead in providing
customer-sensitive, reliable networks which enable the
established service providers, the new carriers and the
Internet service providers to capitalize on their
investments and speed to success.''
''We're very excited about the competitive advantages
Nortel's IPConnect can offer a carrier,'' said Farooq
Hussain, executive vice president, AGIS
Communications. ''Nortel's architecture exactly maps to
the service model that we've developed. Nortel has
teamed with AGIS to provide the solution that fits our
needs at the right time.''
Nortel's IPConnect library contains a suite of
carrier-grade IP Gateways that will tap the service
capability of multiple switch platforms, as well as a
common gatekeeper and powerful management/billing
systems. With unparalleled IP port capacity, unmatched
feature availability, true carrier-class reliability, and
low-latency, Nortel's IPConnect solutions define the next
generation of managed IP-based business telephony
networks for service providers.
While others attempt to re-invent the hundreds of
telephony capabilities common in today's business
networks, IPConnect solutions will deliver the full feature
set immediately by making them available today in an IP
network. IPConnect solutions will also deliver exciting
new services, some of which are unique to IP networks,
that can transform business and consumer networks:
- Telephony Services such as single-stage dialing,
voicemail, call
forward, three-way calling, calling line ID, pre-paid
calling cards
among others.
- Mobile, Virtual Desktops. Employees can dial into the
IP network from
anywhere-home, branch office, airport, hotel-and enjoy
data
connectivity to the corporate network as well as
''Worldwide IP
Centrex'' -- fully featured voice from the corporate
network.
- Advanced Services: unified messaging, virtual multiple
lines,
multimedia conferencing, and Internet telephony
applications such as
Nortel's Internet Call Waiting and Internet Voice Button.
- Call Center Applications. Transport of call-center traffic
over a
low-cost IP network to centralized or distributed agents.
''With the launch of IPConnect, Nortel is setting new
standards on price and performance in the delivery of
telephony services over a rugged, secure IP network,''
said Glenn Falcao, president, Nortel Internet and Service
Provider Networks. ''We're offering our customers more
than the cost advantages of delivering services over an
IP network. We have now enabled the delivery of new,
innovative services that will enhance their revenue.''
Nortel's IPConnect portfolio includes a family of IP
gateways-that serves as an interface between a managed
IP network and the voice network, and provides the
network's service logic-and a common IP gatekeeper.
Scaling to suit customer requirements and delivering
configurations from 24 to 100,000 IP ports, IPConnect
gateways will have open, non-proprietary interfaces:
- i-Tone Gateway offers best-in-class voice and real-time
fax over IP
for immediate service provider deployment supporting
24-96 IP port
configurations.
- CVX 1800 Gateway, an application of the CVX 1800
remote access switch,
scales up to 672 IP ports and supports voice and modem
dialup on a
multi-service carrier grade access vehicle. The CVX 1800
offers an
architecture that forwards a packet in one clock cycle (no
forwarding
delay) resulting in the lowest-latency IP voice offering
on the
market.
- MMCS Gateway scales to 1,800 IP ports and is
designed for service
providers who want to offer the full benefit of IP Centrex
and a broad
suite of business telephony services. The gateway is
implemented on a
fully redundant, carrier-class platform that supports more
than 100
country-specific interfaces for widespread international
deployment.
- DMS IP Gateway, an application of the Nortel DMS-100
central office
switch, offers configurations supporting up to 100,000 IP
ports and
full access to all the world-class, end-user features on
the public
switched telephone network over an IP network. In
conjunction with the
Nortel 1-Meg Modem, the DMS IP Gateway provides
integrated high- speed
Internet access and VoIP.
- IPConnect Gatekeeper: network intelligence which
provides dialed
directory number to IP address mapping, directory
assistance and
gateway resource allocation. The gatekeeper
functionality can either
be integrated into the IP Gateway or deployed as a
standalone device
on a standard industry platform. The IPConnect
Gatekeeper allows for
the rapid development and deployment of new services
and is common to
the entire gateway family.
Nortel IPConnect gateways are fully H.323 compliant,
and support compression methods G.723.1, G.729A,
G.711. The family also supports standard telephony
protocols including SS7 ISUP, ISDN PRI, R2, DPNSS and
QSIG and includes full OAM&P capability, including
carrier billing, storage and file transfer capabilities.
Nortel's IPConnect solutions will incorporate powerful
network management systems that provide network
surveillance and management from a centralized
operations center and a billing system that consolidates
billing across the managed IP network.
The i-Tone Gateway is available today and is being
rolled out in customer accounts. Market trials for
IPConnect are scheduled to begin with lead customers in
fourth quarter 1998.
IPConnect continues the leadership of Nortel's existing
and ever-expanding set of voice over data network
products which includes voice over ATM, voice over
frame relay and voice over IP solutions delivered by
Nortel's Passport portfolio and the Nortel Micom
portfolio. The portfolio also builds on Nortel's industry
leadership in the Internet telephony business with the
company's powerful marketing alliance with Microsoft
and the industry's first carrier-class Internet telephony
applications such as Internet Call Waiting and Internet
Voice Button.
SOURCE Northern Telecom Limited
/CONTACT: Richard Byrd, Nortel, (919) 992-4137,
rbyrd(at)nortel.com; Candace Inscoe, Nortel, (919)
992-0810, cinscoe(at)nortel.com; Frank McNally, Nortel,
(703) 712-8374, frank.mcnally(at)nortel.com; Or visit
Nortel's web-site at www.nortel.com; A press kit
supporting this announcement including background
information on the product portfolio is available on-line
at www.nortel.com/IPConnect; Nortel's press releases are
also available through CNO-Call by fax at 800-758-5804,
ext. 122158 or at prnewswire.com /Company
News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax at
800-758-5804, ext. 122158/ /Web-site:
nortel.com (NTL. NT) |
