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A famously blunt warning -- "It's the economy, stupid!" --
once guided a presidential campaign all the way to the White House. Today,
a similarly blunt warning could guide those who would promote the next-gen
public network. The new network, if it is to benefit carriers and
customers, must allow service providers to deploy sophisticated services
and applications quickly and inexpensively. In addition, it must
demonstrate both value and convenience to customers.
Absent such services and applications, service providers face a bleak
future, since current revenues depend on connectivity, transport, and
basic services -- all of which are fast acquiring commodity status. Future
revenues will depend on enhanced services, that is, services with real
business value. Such services go beyond basic functions such as call
waiting or caller ID. And such services exceed the capabilities of the
existing public network, notwithstanding such initiatives as the advanced
intelligent network (AIN).
AIN, which originated in the mid-80s, has been a mixed success at best.
Despite AIN's device-independent plan, to this day, devices from different
vendors implement slightly different call models, requiring mediation
among heterogeneous switches and signal control points, increasing the
complexity and cost of creating new services. In addition, AIN
demonstrates limited usability, since it requires users to implement
awkward flash hook and star code sequences. Finally, the services that
have been created are, in truth, commodity services, such as called number
translation, offering little potential for service provider
differentiation.
Is there a better way? Yes, according to vendors who would supply the
building blocks for the new public network. Many of these vendors advocate
"application-ready" architectures that, like AIN, abstract call
control and service logic from transport. Unlike AIN approaches, however,
the next-gen approaches emulate Internet-style development, exploiting the
migration of traditional circuit traffic to packet networks, as well
browser-style user interfaces.
In the next-gen network, media gateways handle transport, soft switches
handle call control, and application servers handle service creation. If
they perform as envisioned, these network elements will help service
providers and their customers realize highly customized, cost-effective
services. However, the challenge of interoperability remains. Indeed, with
such a proliferation of elements, multivendor chaos in the new network
might even surpass that in the old network -- unless vendors remain
committed to interoperability.
At present, vendors are emphasizing virtual as opposed to vertical
integration, participating in bakeoffs and interoperability trials,
forming partnerships and alliances, and proposing standardized protocols
and open APIs. If such trends continue, we may witness the birth of a new
industry, namely, third-party application development and service creation
for the new public network. So, in support of interoperability, we may do
well to remember, "It's the applications, stupid!"
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| Next-Gen
Services News
Narus Partners With
digiquant
Narus and digiquant
announced a technology development and marketing alliance agreement.
The relationship will focus on the integration of digiquant's
Internet Management System (IMS) and the Narus Internet Business
Infrastructure (IBI) platform. Under the terms of the agreement, the
two companies will combine efforts to develop and provide an
integrated solution in mediation systems and billing systems for IP
providers and telecommunications carriers.
Lucent Unveils
VitalAccess
Lucent Technologies has
announced VitalAccess, an integrated multi-vendor software solution
for broadband service providers to provision and deliver Internet
access, multimedia, and VoIP services. VitalAccess is a subscriber
activation and management system that can help cable operators,
digital subscriber line (DSL) providers, broadband wireless
operators, and fiber-to-the-home providers reduce provisioning
costs, improve the accuracy and efficiency of service provisioning,
and empower end-users to manage their services. "A
next-generation broadband IP provisioning solution will give us the
competitive advantage critical to our ability to rapidly deploy and
turn up services next year," said Rich Baughman, vice president
of information technology, WINfirst.
NexTone Announces
Application Switch
NexTone Communications has
announced the iVANi iServer application switch. This platform is a
key part of NexTone's strategy to deliver application infrastructure
for the next generation service provider and provides two key
benefits -- maximum service reach and service velocity. Within the
softswitch architecture, the softswitch bridges between the IP
network and the PSTN while the application switch enables
application connectivity between IP endpoints. The iServer
application switch provides the policy-based call routing and
signaling mediation (SIP, H.323) needed to deploy applications in an
on-net IP environment while also interoperating with softswitch and
media gateway platforms for off-net calls to and from the PSTN.
GoBeam Taps Sylantro
For Next-Gen Rollouts
GoBeam and Sylantro
Systems are expanding their technology partnership to enable
GoBeam to deliver business voice services using Sylantro's newest
application modules. GoBeam is using Sylantro's softswitch
technology to integrate new voice services into feature-rich
offerings for pilot customers. GoBeam's self-managed service allows
users of its Web-based interface to add or delete capabilities,
customize preferences, set permissions, and direct communications
events. In addition to this announcement, Sylantro notes a recent
success in its interoperability tests with telecom technologies.
That is, Sylantro has achieved INIP-Powered status. Sylantro's
applications switch received this designation after successfully
completing SIP interoperability testing with telecom
technologies' INtelligentIP softswitch.
Indigo To Release
Application Server
Indigo Software is developing
a SIP-enabled application server scheduled for commercial release in
Q1 2001. The application server incorporates several Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP) engines, a SIP registrar server, a SIP
proxy server, and location server. These components are empowered by
service configuration tools based on Call Processing Language (CPL)
and SIP's Common Gateway Interface (SIP-CGI). Extensions to the
application server comprise an HTTP server for Web services, an SMTP
server for e-mail services, and an RTSP server for streaming media
features. This ensemble will be augmented by a presence server and
an instant messaging server in forthcoming releases.
Portal Software
Establishes New Partners, Customers
Portal Software announced
several new partners and customers in the next-generation IP
telephony and emerging softswitch markets. New technology partners
incorporating Infranet IPT, Portal's customer management and billing
software, into their softswitch and services platform solutions
include ipVerse and Syndeo Corporation, as well as Xybridge
Technologies and BroadSoft. Also, Portal will provide GoBeam and
iCall with a packet-based telephony service solution for
provisioning, delivery, deployment, and billing. The solution is
designed to allow telecommunications retailers to offer voice
services directly to their customers.
I-Link Adds Nuance's
Speech Rec To GateLink
I-Link and Nuance have
announced a partnership agreement that will enable GateLink partners
and V-Link unified communications users to implement Nuance's speech
recognition technology, Nuance 7.0. The incorporation of Nuance's
automatic speech recognition (ASR) software with the GateLink
service creation platform will enhance service providers' ability to
deploy affordable voice-enabled applications such as voice portal
and V-Commerce services in a very short time to market and with a
very low initial investment. In addition, Nuance's speech
recognition technology will enable voice-activated dialing in
I-Link's unified communications product, V-Link.
Ubiquity Partners With
VSYS
Ubiquity Software has
announced a partnership with VSYS
that will include joint development activities as well as joint
sales and marketing programs to accelerate the deployment of
SIP-based packet services in carrier networks. The companies expect
to cooperate in a variety of industry conferences and training
seminars. The alliance creates a foundation for the development of
advanced carrier services based on SIP technology, with the Ubiquity
Helmsman application service platform complementing VSYS Softswitch
in the VSYS hosting center. Using the Helmsman application, next-gen
service providers may build and deploy revenue generating services
over IP networks.
Unisphere To Acquire
Broadsoft
Unisphere Networks
has announced a definitive agreement to acquire BroadSoft.
BroadSoft, which will join Unisphere's Voice Products Group,
recently announced that it has successfully tested interoperability
of its BroadWorks solution with Cisco Systems' voice gateways. This
solution, with its SIP-based interoperability, is designed to allow
ICPs to rapidly deploy Centrex-style services.
Apogee Joins Cisco New
World Ecosystem
Joining the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program, Apogee
announced it will work with Ecosystem members to enable service
providers with its content usage-based billing technology. With this
contribution, Apogee intends to address the technological challenges
posed by the Internet for rating and billing. These challenges
include scalability, real-time rating, content delivery, and rapid
service introduction. Specifically, Apogee's NetCountant billing and
settlement platforms may help the Ecosystem partners and their joint
customers to rapidly develop and deploy new business and revenue
models on a global scale.
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