Ascend Announces MultiVoice Strategy -- The First
Transparent Integration of the Existing Voice Network
With Voice/fax Over IP, ATM and Frame Relay
Business Wire - March 30, 1998 08:44
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ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 30, 1998--
Enables Carriers and Internet Service Providers to Provide
Managed, Toll-Quality, Carrier-Class Voice/Fax Services Over
Existing and Future Data Networks
Spurred both by the tremendous growth in data networking over wide-area networks, and the
opportunity to get a piece of what is today a $200 billion-a-year market, Ascend
Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASND) today announced MultiVoice, a comprehensive
architecture for delivering voice and fax over IP, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and
Frame Relay networks.
Ascend, acknowledged as the leader in providing data networking technology to network service
providers worldwide, is uniquely positioned to take voice over data networks to the next level.
The company today unveiled its three-phase MultiVoice strategy, which sets the stage for a series
of product and technology announcements throughout 1998. These solutions, including MultiVoice
for the MAX and Quality of Service (QoS) for voice applications, will enable carriers, Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) and other network service providers to deliver voice and fax services
over a data infrastructure, with the same manageability and 'toll-quality' that their customers expect
today from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
"Clearly, voice over a data infrastructure represents a major business opportunity, both for our
service provider customers, and for data networking companies such as Ascend," said Bob
Machlin, vice president of marketing, Ascend Communications. "However, only Ascend's
MultiVoice strategy identifies, and provides solutions for the many issues that exist in this space:
including packetized voice and fax over many network types, Absolute QoS to provide bandwidth
and interoperability with the PSTN and carrier signalling networks. Other vendors are talking
about moving this market forward, only Ascend is actually doing it today."
Voice Technology: The $200 Billion Dollar Opportunity
The problem with data traffic is that it has to be made to look like voice traffic so that it can travel
efficiently over the PSTN. This has caused congestion for voice calls, and also the infamous
Internet busy signals that are a common experience for consumers dialing up their ISP.
Network service providers are busy re-aligning their data networks to ease this congestion, but
are keenly interested in implementing solutions that will allow them to take advantage of both the
PSTN and the emerging data networks, including those which, like the Internet, consist of packet
traffic. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are the optimal backbone solution for
packet voice and data, and the QOS mechanisms that exist in these networks allow service
providers to ensure the bandwidth that is necessary for high-quality voice transmission.
Recognizing that the PSTN will be around for quite a while, Ascend believes that its MultiVoice
architecture is the ideal solution for enabling voice over the data network, while preserving the
service providers' investment in the PSTN. Given that the existing market for voice equipment nets
out at over $200 billion a year, the company sees significant market opportunity here.
Carrier-class Voice Requirements
In order to deliver voice and fax over data networks, the following criteria must be met:
-- Transparent operation. Phone and fax calls over a data network
must be equivalent to circuit-switched networks, that is, have
the same quality as they do over the PSTN today.
-- Full functionality. All the PSTN functionality, including DTMF
digits, real-time fax, modem support and carrier signalling
network (SS7) functionality must be supported.
-- Call setup, management and accounting. Voice over a data network
must be scalable to millions of calls per hour.
-- Comparable user experience to the PSTN. The user must perceive no
difference when making a voice call over a data network, so the
solution must have low network delay and high tolerance for delay
variation.
MultiVoice Carrier-class Architecture
Ascend's MultiVoice architecture leverages the company's
leading-edge WAN networking technologies, as well as new developments
in voice compression, and QOS mechanisms that provide bandwidth.
MultiVoice supports the full range of voice networking, including IP,
Frame Relay, and ATM, including ATM AAL1, AAL2, and AAL5. By providing
a complete set of solutions for data networking, Ascend's MultiVoice
solutions are scalable from the customer premises through the service
provider Central Office (CO) and Point of Presence (PoP).
"PSINet is a long-time Ascend customer, so we are very familiar
with the quality of its solutions," said William L. Schrader,
chairman, CEO, and president at PSINet Inc. (Herndon, Va.). "The
Ascend MultiVoice strategy conforms well to our own business model,
which is to offer our customers the widest range of services, using
the widest range of access technologies."
As a result, service providers and enterprise customers can
implement applications that truly benefit their business. For example,
an ISP can implement Ascend's MultiVoice VoIP and Frame Relay solution
to develop an IP-based voice service that will generate additional
revenue, as well as be a service differentiator in an increasingly
competitive Internet services market. An enterprise customer can
utilize Ascend's MutiVoice over ATM to route voice calls over its WAN
in order to reduce costs and increase worker productivity.
Three-phase MultiVoice Strategy
Ascend will roll out voice capabilities in the following three
major phases: Voice over IP and Frame Relay, Voice over ATM, and Voice
Interoperability.
-- Phase One -- Voice over IP and Frame Relay. In Phase One, Ascend
will ship solutions that will allow service providers and
enterprise customers to route voice and fax calls over an IP
infrastructure. Service providers can, for the first time, deploy
packetized voice using Ascend Access Switching, Frame Relay, and
Switched IP solutions to create true 'toll-quality' voice
networks.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In two separate announcements also released today,
Ascend unveiled MultiVoice for the MAX, the company's state-of-the-art
IP telephony gateway, and its Absolute Quality of Service, which
provides bandwidth for packetized voice in the backbone of the
network.
-- Phase Two -- Voice over ATM. In Phase Two, Ascend will introduce
products and technologies that will enhance existing circuit
emulation capabilities providing Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
compressed voice over ATM.
-- Phase Three -- MultiVoice Platform Interoperability. In the third
major phase of Ascend's MultiVoice strategy, the company will
unveil interoperability of MutiVoice over IP, Frame Relay and
ATM, as well as the ability to integrate MultiVoice into SS7
carrier signaling networks.
Ascend Strength: From Access to the Core
Ascend provides a comprehensive set of networking solutions from the customer premises
equipment (CPE), through Access Switching into the Core of the network, with integrated WAN
QoS, Service Management, and security. This distinction is critical because in order to build true
'toll-quality' voice networks on a data infrastructure, it is necessary to deploy and manage those
services, and to provide network bandwidth and security.
Using Ascend's industry-leading core switching technology, for example, it will be possible to
provide call setup rates: up to five million calls per busy hour on the CBX500, and up to eight
million calls per busy hour on the GX550. This compares with rates of about one million calls per
busy hour on a typical CO switch today. In addition, Ascend can support up to 500,000 IP
routes, and the company's MultiService switches will allow for simultaneous Voice over IP, Frame
Relay, and ATM. Ascend's Navis network management platform provides the most robust
platform for the creation, provisioning and management of new and existing data services, and will
enable service providers to reliably and economically deploy new voice services. Ascend has
leveraged its dominance in the remote access industry with its flagship product, MAX and MAX
TNT WAN access switches, with an installed base of over 50,000 units.
"The tight integration of the Ascend MultiVoice solution with existing carrier and ISP business
models reflects Ascend's experience in carrier and service provider networks," said Francois de
Repentigny, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan, based in Mountain View, Calif. "Ascend's in-depth
understanding of both voice and data signaling protocols has enabled them to devise an
architecture that will allow carriers to link their packet-based voice and fax services into existing
SS7 networks, preserving investment in equipment, personnel, and processes. ISPs can phase the
Ascend solution into their current network and begin offering low cost, toll quality voice with a
relatively small investment."
About Ascend Communications, Inc.
Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures, sells and services wide area networking
solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers and corporate customers
worldwide. For more information about Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend web site
at www.ascend.com, or e-mail info@ascend.com.
Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, CA
94502. Phone 800/ASCEND4; Fax 510/747-2300.
CONTACT: Ascend Communications
Eric Warren, 510/747-6683
eric.warren@ascend.com
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