Alcatel Introduces New Integrated Platform for Delivering Scalable, Feature Rich Voice, Fax, and Data Services Over the New Public Data Network
PR Newswire, Tuesday, October 12, 1999 at 03:19
Product Leverages Assured Access Universal Access Gateway
and Alcatel SS7 and IN Expertise
Alcatel at Telecom 99 - Hall 4, Stand No. 210
GENEVA, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) today announced an
integrated platform for delivering scalable, feature-rich voice, fax and data
services over the new public network. The integrated product enables service
providers to easily provision voice over IP (VoIP) services -- with many of
the advanced calling features found only in today's circuit switched voice
network -- using the same physical interface as data and fax services.
Combining Alcatel's technology leadership in telecommunications with
recently acquired Assured Access' expertise in IP-based multi-service access,
the integrated voice, fax and data product is composed of five key components:
the Assured Access Universal Access Gateway, Alcatel's 1135 Service Management
Center/Gatekeeper, the Alcatel Call Signaling Gateway, and Alcatel's IN 1400
Service Control Point and Service Creation Environment.
"By combining the best of the voice and data switching worlds, these
technologies deliver on the promise of convergence," said Peter Michiels, Vice
President of Alcatel's carrier data activities. "With the new product, service
providers can now easily manage thousands of voice, fax and data paths and add
new users and services on the fly -- a necessary feature in this quickly
evolving market."
The core of the product is Assured Access' NEBS level 3-compliant
Universal Access Gateway, a highly scalable product that supports voice, fax,
and dial-up data (V.90, ISDN) on the same physical interface, enabling service
providers to provision all three services in a cost-effective manner. Built
to scale as service providers add new subscribers, the Universal Access
Gateway is a high-density dial-up remote access server family that supports
more than 2,000 VoIP/FoIP or V.90 data ports per shelf and more than
8,000 VoIP/FoIP ports per standard seven-foot telco rack.
The platform leverages Alcatel's revolutionary 1135 Service Management
Center, an integrated management center and H.323 compliant gatekeeper that
manages multiple Universal Access Gateways as a single entity. Already
deployed extensively with carriers in Europe and Asia, the software enables
service providers to create and manage a service profile for each individual
user, a necessary feature for provisioning profitable service level agreements
(SLAs). The Service Management Center also incorporates a RADIUS server that
provides the accounting, authentication and authorization functions required
with the operation of data networks today.
"With over 8,000 VoIP ports per rack and a unified management interface in
the Service Management Center, the Alcatel solution gives service providers
both the scalability and the simplicity they need to keep up with customer
demand while holding down their operating costs," said Robert Bellman,
president of Brook Trail Research. "By supporting voice, data, and fax on the
same platform, the Universal Access Gateway not only minimizes equipment
costs, but also keeps the provider's network as simple and easy to manage as
possible."
"The Alcatel approach to integrated voice, fax and data over IP is exactly
the type of solution we have been looking for to provide advanced voice and
data services to our customers," said Bret Mingo, president and CEO of
CoreCom, a fast growing CLEC serving the mid-Atlantic region. "By supporting
voice, data, and fax on the same interface modules and integrating Alcatel's
time-tested voice products, the solution will allow a service provider like
CoreCom to provision and manage voice services at a level of granularity that
maximizes responsiveness to customer demands while minimizing hardware
investments."
Universal Access Gateway
The Universal Access Gateway is a scalable, high-density dial-up remote
access server family that supports more than 2,000 VoIP/FoIP or V.90 data
ports per shelf and more than 8,000 VoIP/FoIP ports per standard seven-foot
telco rack.
With a new universal server module specifically designed for the Universal
Access Gateway application, the Alcatel platform can terminate voice and data
calls on the same PSTN port, supporting dial-up data, PSTN phone, PSTN fax,
PSTN terminal and H.323 terminal calls. Voice and fax features include the
full range of compression, conversion, echo cancellation and encoding schemes
including G.711, G.723.1 and G.729A for voice and T.37 and T.38 for fax. The
product offers redundancy features and 99.999% system availability.
The Universal Access Gateway features digital signal processor (DSP)
technology on each card, automatically recognizing and compressing voice and
data traffic using a full range of voice and fax protocols.
Designed to provide the flexibility needed at the edge of the service
provider's network the Universal Access Gateway boasts a wide variety of PSTN
access interfaces including channelized DS3, T1, E1 and PRI. The Universal
Access Gateway also offers industry standard WAN interfaces including 100 Mbps
Fast Ethernet, ATM on DS3 and OC-3c/STM-1 and frame relay.
Alcatel Service Management Center
The voice over IP product also features Alcatel's 1135 Service Management
center, a key component for advanced call control and VPN-based resource
management of dial-up and voice-over-IP networks. The Service Management
Center manages multiple gateways as a unified resource, providing extensive
VPN management support, complete accounting and billing capability and
multiple built-in H.323 compliant VoIP Gatekeepers to enable carrier-class
wholesale and retail business models.
Using the advanced functionality of the Service Management Center, the
Universal Access Gateway deals with each call as an individual account,
enabling the system to individually provision, upgrade, manage and route all
connections and user profiles on the fly. Resources across all the gateways
are pooled and made available in a unified fashion, allowing network operators
to allocate voice and data calls across the entire pool of gateways.
The Service Management Center also features an easy-to-use graphical user
interface, allowing service providers to register new subscribers, create new
services and configure billing parameters easily and quickly. To maximize the
flexibility of the system, the product also features a proxy service, allowing
the service provider to integrate its preexisting authentication, billing and
accounting platforms with the Universal Access Gateway.
Alcatel Call Signaling Gateway
The Alcatel VoIP solution also incorporates Alcatel's Call Signaling
Gateway, a sophisticated SS7 Signaling Gateway capable of processing from
10,000 to 50,000 TCAP messages per second. The Alcatel Call Signaling Gateway
supports the MGCP (Multimedia Gateway Control Protocol) standard and protects
against POP failure by performing load balancing and redirecting calls to
available ports in the Universal Access Gateway. The Alcatel Call Signaling
Gateway supports both ANSI and ETSI SS7 variants.
Leveraging Alcatel's proven expertise in SS7 and the PSTN switched
network, the Call Signaling Gateway interfaces the PSTN's SS7 signaling
network with the Universal Access Gateway, allowing the Universal Access
Gateway to provide seamless call set-up between Internet networks and
traditional PSTN switched networks.
About Alcatel
Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end
voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers, as
well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales
of EURO 21.3 billion ($25.0 billion), Alcatel operates in more than
130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel's Web site at
www.alcatel.com
Contacts Alcatel
For full Alcatel Geneva Telecom press list, consult :
alcatel.com
Alcatel Telecom Geneva :
Press Office : Tel : +41 22 746 5507/08
Olivier Le Friec : Tel : +33 (0)6 08 40 94 43
Willem Zevenbergen : Tel : +33 (0)6 07 86 76 04
Alcatel Press office (Paris)
Tel : + 33 (0)1 40 76 12 98
Investor Relations
Claire Pedini Tel : +33 (0)1 40 76 13 93
Claire.pedini@alcatel.fr
Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane Tel : +33 (0)1 40 76 13 30
Charlotte.laurent-ottomane@alcatel.fr
Emmanuel Spite Tel : +33 (0)1 40 76 16 04
Emmanuel.spite@alcatel.fr
SOURCE Alcatel
-0- 10/12/1999
/CONTACT: Alcatel Telecom Geneva: Press Office: +41-22-746-5507 or
+41-22-746-5508; or Olivier Le Friec, +33-6-08-40-94-43, or Willem
Zevenbergen, +33-6-07-86-76-04; or Alcatel Press Office -- Paris,
+33-1-40-76-12-98; or Investor Relations -- Claire Pedini, +33-1-40-76-13-93,
or Claire.pedini@alcatel.fr, or Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane, +33-1-40-76-13-30,
or Charlotte.laurent-ottomane@alcatel.fr, or Emmanuel Spite,
+33-1-40-76-16-04, or Emmanuel.spite@alcatel.fr, all of Alcatel/
/Web site: alcatel.fr
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