Probita and General Instrument to explore level one gateway solutions

Business Wire, Jan 3, 1995

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 3, 1993--Probita Inc. and General Instrument Corporation announced today the companies will work together to explore Level One Gateway solutions for the management of connections in interactive video networks. The Level One Gateway connects consumers with multiple information providers by coordinating all elements of the Level One transport and access networks.

The two companies have agreed to leverage their respective expertise in the development of the gateway for interactive environments. The eventual system will, the companies said, manage interaction among set-top terminals, video servers, headends and optical nodes on a real-time basis.

Dan Moloney, vice president of Addressable Systems for the GI Communications Division of General Instrument, said Probita was chosen to help with the Level One Gateway because of its expertise in designing future requirements for new operations support systems for broadband voice and video services.

"Probita's vision of the emerging convergence industry is a good fit with our own," Moloney said. "It focus on operations support and the enabling technologies that will be required to build a profitable business in the industry, as well as its software design capabilities, make this a good relationship."

As multiple services come on-line, the Level One Gateway software will control the switch fabric much like a telephony central office switch. It will be a critical, 24-hour facility that must remain in continuous operation while the network hardware, service definitions, and even its own software evolve through experience. Unlike central office switches, however, the Level One Gateway will control a diverse distributed switching system environment and support a variety of operator-defined call models and applications.

"The architecture of the GI Level One Gateway will create an open system useable in a multi-vendor environment," said Robert Lund, director of network architectures and products for Probita. "It will accommodate a wide range of subscribers on a variety of hardware platform configurations. These two points appear to be of critical importance to Level One operators."

Probita, Inc. is a software company specializing in open, modular, distributed operations support systems and OSS software integration. Its core competencies include real-time, high-performance transaction management systems and network command and control.

General Instrument Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a world leader in broadband transmission, distribution and access control technologies for cable, satellite, telephony and terrestrial broadcasting applications, high definition television technology, and discrete rectifying components.

CONTACT: Griendling Communications

             Robert Griendling, 703/978-4686
               or
             General Instrument
             Jim Barthold, 215/956-6448