3Com Readies First Shipments of Three-Tier Carrier-Grade Total Control
IP Telephony System - BW, 07:03 a.m. Jan 26, 1999 Eastern
Unique Architecture Provides Enhanced Resiliency and Scalability
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 1999--
3Com Corp. (Nasdaq:COMS) today announced that following extensive internal testing,
the company is preparing to ship the gatekeepers and back-end servers along with the
gateways as a "starter kit" Total Control(TM) IP Telephony System.
The new gatekeepers and back-end servers comprise the second and third tiers of 3Com's
unique three-tier carrier-grade architecture. While the system's tier-one gateway was
introduced last year, this marks the first time that the complete system is available.
Unlike conventional IP Telephony systems, which combine the back-end servers with the
gatekeepers, 3Com's three-tier architecture separates the back-end servers into a third
tier, which enables carriers to scale these databases more efficiently and to locate these
business-critical databases in secure facilities.
Separating these servers also gives carriers the flexibility to integrate them with their
existing OSS. For carrier-class operations, this robust architecture provides reliable
hop-on/hop-off transport of telephony traffic with better system resiliency to minimize
network downtime.
"The real challenge for service providers today is not packetizing voice, but architecting
and provisioning meaningful services that leverage IP voice," said Hilary Mine, executive
vice president, Probe Research Inc., Cedar Knolls, N.J. (www.proberesearch.com)
"3Com is delivering on its promise to provide a flexible architecture that enables service
providers to differentiate."
3Com's standards-based three-tier IP Telephony System includes gateways, gatekeepers
and back-end servers interconnected by open standard-based protocols, making it the
industry's first carrier-grade system that delivers carriers the performance, reliability and
scalability they need to implement IP Telephony on a broad scale.
In addition, the modular architecture features standard APIs at all three levels to provide
carriers the flexibility to easily customize the system for service differentiation.
The gatekeeper provides centralized call control, zone and resource management, and
overall system command and control for the 3Com IP Telephony System, mediating
communications between the Gateways, which provide seamless access to the IP
network, and the back-end servers.
The back-end servers provide the back-office functions that are essential to carrier
operations. The starter kit system includes two servers. The directory server provides
mapping between called telephone numbers and the IP address of the hop-off gateway
that is closest to it, and also provides dialed-number translation and format-checking
functions. The accounting server stores call detail records and other critical billing
information on a call-by-call basis.
Future system releases will include an authentication server and a call-rating server to
complete the suite of basic back-office functions.
Based on 3Com's Total Control multi-service access platform, the carrier-grade IP
Telephony System is standards-based and supports common international protocols,
including ITU H.323v2. In addition, the system uses G.711, G.723.1 and G.729a voice
encoding to ensure compatibility and interoperability with global telephone systems.
In its full implementation, 3Com's system will offer carriers the flexibility to deploy a
wide range of IP telephony services, as well as FAX and video services, enabling them
to provide phone-to-phone, PC-to-phone, and other enhanced IP telephone services to
traditional telephone users.
The Total Control IP Telephony System is designed to support switch-independent and
switch-dependent calling models, as well as a transparent operations model which
provides callers with direct access to an IP backbone through simple "1+" dialing.
The Total Control System Gateway is priced at $300-500 per port, depending on
configuration, the Gatekeeper at $100,000, and the Back-End Servers at $15,000-30,000
per application, depending on network dimensioning.
Total Control
3Com's industry-leading Total Control multi-service access platform provides
telecommunications carriers, service providers, and large enterprises a powerful and
complete remote solution, including support for remote access, IP telephony, and virtual
private networking applications. The software-upgradable platform is designed for
service reliability, using redundant power supplies and modular application cards to
prevent a single point of failure.
In addition, its modular architecture supports hot-swapping of interface and application
cards so that the system remains live and online, thus minimizing network downtime.
About 3Com
With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corp. connects more people to
information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative
information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small
enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. 3Com -
More connected.(TM) For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at
3com.com, or the press site at 3com.com.
Copyright 1999, Business Wire
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