Jetstream offers gateway for DSL voice
By Loring Wirbel
EE Times
(12/01/98, 3:14 p.m. EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jetstream Communications Inc., a voice-processing
specialist with roots in ISDN, has developed a packet-to-circuit gateway
for using digital-subscriber-line networks to deliver dial-up voice to end
users. Jetstream's Unity access network can use industry-standard
asynchronous-transfer-mode switches, as well as ATM-based DSL-access
multiplexers (DSLAMs), to let competitive local-exchange carriers get
directly into the voice business through DSL hardware.
Jetstream won't have its CPX-1000 ready for shipping or pricing until early
1999, probably around the time of the January ComNet show in
Washington. But it is talking to data-oriented competitive local-exchange
carriers this week in Las Vegas at the ALTS show, a special trade show for
CLECs and facilities-based Internet-service providers.
David Frankel, founder and chief technology officer at Jetstream, said
many CLECs have talked about getting into voice services, but only
through voice-over-Internet Protocol, wherein voice is packetized
end-to-end and carried over the IP network. A DSL architecture must
assume the existence of many circuit-switched calls and must provide
switching between circuit and packet worlds.
Special equipment is required at only two points in the network. An
integrated access device (IAD) that can multiplex voice and data on one line
is necessary at the customer premises. And at the central office, a local
service gateway that connects directly to a CLEC's Class 5 circuit switch is
needed.
Jetstream plans to be the sole designer of the Unity CPX-1000 gateway for
circuit-to-packet conversions. But at the customer premises, the company
wants to work with several manufacturers to develop access devices
compatible with Jetstream's own multiplexing methods.
"We will develop reference designs and prototypes, to be sure, but we
wanted to engage with partners because we knew we couldn't do all types
of IADs ranging from a home office to a branch office," Frankel said.
Jetstream is keeping a close eye on the emerging Media Gateway Control
Protocol and will make sure its systems linking IP and Signaling System 7
networks are compatible with MGCP. In general, Frankel observed, most
vendors in the gateway field tend to be larger telco-equipment vendors that
are familiar with circuit switches but largely unfamiliar with DSL.
Conversely, he said, most DSL-equipment specialists deal only with CLECs
and haven't yet looked at developing effective circuit-switched gateways.
Few startups or existing players have probed voice gateways for DSL thus.
CopperCom Inc. is one known exception.
Jetstream is pitching Unity as a direct replacement for T1 leasing. It
stresses that payback periods for equipment amortization can be cut by
moving more circuit-switched voice over DSL.
The CPX-1000 gateway system will perform routing and call-control
signaling as well as packet/circuit conversion. Jetstream will disclose more
architectural details in early 1999.
Another important piece of the architecture Jetstream will offer to
alternative carriers is a dedicated element-management-system software
suite, based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (Corba),
that can provision and maintain customer voice and data services over as
many as 10 CPX-1000 gateways. A single software interface will be able to
manage 25,000 access devices at the customer premises, or up to 100,000
lines.
Jetstream already has conducted interoperability tests to show that its
gateway will interoperate with leading circuit switches, such as those from
Lucent and Nortel. Between this week's ALTS show and the ComNet show
at the end of January, Jetstream will test its system with leading ATM
switches and DSLAMs.
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