Vendors offer integrated SIP VoIP solution
By Brian Santo

Operators looking to provide commercial telephony services often implement SIP-based VoIP, but those who do so are generally obligated to integrate the system themselves. System integration can be difficult for the largest of operators, and a deal-stopper for many smaller companies. That has led a group of vendors with expertise in various aspects of VoIP to come together to provide an integrated solution.

Camiant, Acme Packet, Arris, BroadSoft, pureIntegration and Sigma Systems   announced an integrated software and service-based solution that allows multiple system operators (MSOs) to rapidly deploy commercial VoIP.

 “One of the challenges that cable operators have had in developing the commercial voice market is selecting and implementing network components that work effectively together within the unique requirements of cable MSOs’ networks,” said Randy Fuller, senior director of alliances and solutions for Camiant, which is the point of contact for the group of vendors on this project . “This group of vendors, each a well-established market leader in their own right, have come together to solve that problem.” 

The integrated VoIP and SIP trunking solutions available from the group of vendors provide advanced calling features, security, network address translation (NAT) and firewall traversal, dynamic quality of service, broad client choice and automated order management, provisioning, and administrative/user self-care. 

The components of the MSO commercial VoIP solution include: Camiant’s Multimedia Policy Engine; Acme Packet’s Net-Net session border controllers; Arris’ C4 CMTS and Touchstone multi-line E-MTAs; BroadSoft’s BroadWorks

IMS-compliant application server; and Sigma Systems’ Service Management Platform, Commercial SMB Voice Service Package and Service Management Applications. pureIntegration contributes expertise with integrating these particular products.

The companies said that commercial VoIP services using these components have been deployed at several of the largest cable operators worldwide.

The participating companies will discuss the approach this Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 11:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. PT, during a Webinar hosted by CED called “Dip into SIP.” 

Verizon converges business services on ROADM network
By Brian Santo

Verizon Business has debuted a product and a strategy for migrating its business customers from multiple networks to a single network. Verizon’s Integrated Optical Service is based on the reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer architecture.

The ROADM-based Integrated Optical Service allows for the integration of various optical technologies such as dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) and synchronous optical network (SONET), in addition to Ethernet. The platform can support a wide range of time-division multiplexing (TDM), storage, video and mainframe applications.

The ROADM architecture, Verizon said, promises greater control over transport costs, a more flexible network and simpler management, including a Customer Service Management desktop feature that allows customers to easily retrieve reports and view and monitor the health of their networks.

The service is immediately available to customers nationwide within Verizon territories, including major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Tampa, Dallas-Ft.Worth, Newark, Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, Portland and Seattle.

In addition, the new service can connect to Verizon Business' ultra long haul network for high-bandwidth transport between regional and remote backup data centers for asynchronous data replication. Finally, the service also allows for access to many other Verizon services and solutions, such as Private IP (Verizon's MPLS network) and the public Internet.

Kulabyte’s encoding solution sets sail
By Traci Patterson

Kulabyte has shipped what it claims is the industry’s fastest video encoding solution: the Kulabyte Professional Version 1.0.

The product utilizes multi-core video processing, enabling the delivery of cross-platform content with enhanced picture quality and bandwidth savings, the company said.

The Kulabyte Professional Encoder, based on the company’s patent-pending TimeSlice video encoding technology, uses industry-standard codec engines and enables faster-than-real-time, 2-pass variable bit rate (VBR) encoding, in both live and/or on-demand broadcasting.

With the solution, media creators can encode and distribute digital content at speeds up to 12 times faster than industry-standard codec times, the company said.

The product is priced at $5,500 for the standard 4-core version, and optional VP6 for Flash 8 support is available for an extra $1,500.

InGrid adds $13.5M in new funding round
By Traci Patterson

InGrid Inc. has racked up an additional $13.5 million in private capital from a new round of funding led by the Armstrong Group of Companies and Associated Partners. 

The financing will be used to continue the company’s development and market launch of digital home protection services, which InGrid CEO Louis Stilp said is “the first all-digital, all-wireless technology for home and small business security.”

Existing investors CenterPoint Ventures, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, PA Early Stage Partners and ZG Ventures also participated in the round.

And Kirby Campbell, CEO of Armstrong Group, has been appointed to InGrid’s board of directors.

Broadband Briefs for 7/16/07

* CedarPoint names EVP of engineering
Cedar Point Communications has named John O’Hara executive vice president, engineering, responsible for driving the development of increased technological capabilities for Cedar Point’s Safari C³ Multimedia Switching System. O’Hara most recently served as a consultant with sentitO Networks.

Previously he had served as vice president of engineering of Colubris Networks, a WLAN public access equipment company.

*Vyyo appoints new CFO
Vyyo Inc. has named Robert K. Mills as its CFO, effective Aug. 1. He replaces Arik Levi, who will serve in an advisory capacity during the transition. Earlier this month, Vyyo named David Feldman as CTO. For the past two years, Mills was CFO of Tri-S Security Corp., and for the six years prior to that, he was CFO of Knology Inc. 

* Ciena platform earns RUS okay
Ciena’s CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform has achieved technical acceptance under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural Development Telecommunications Program, which offers funding and low-cost loans to service providers investing in networks that serve rural communities. This technical acceptance authorizes Ciena's CN 4200 platform for use in telecommunications networks built with loans from the USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS).