Alcatel Introduces New Integrated Platform for Delivering Scalable, Feature-Rich Voice, Fax and Data Services Over the New Public Data Network

Business Wire, June 3, 1999

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 1999--

Product Leverages Assured Access Universal Access

Gateway and Alcatel SS7 and IN expertise

Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) Thursday announced an integrated platform for delivering scalable, feature-rich voice, fax and data services over the new public network.

The integrated product enables service providers to easily provision voice-over-IP (VoIP) services -- with many of the advanced calling features found only in today's circuit switched voice network -- using the same physical interface as data and fax services.

Combining Alcatel's technology leadership in telecommunications with recently acquired Assured Access' expertise in IP-based multiservice access, the integrated voice, fax and data product is composed of five key components: the Assured Access Universal Access Gateway, Alcatel's 1135 Service Management Center/Gatekeeper, the Alcatel Call Signaling Gateway, and Alcatel's IN 1400 Service Control Point and Service Creation Environment.

"By combining the best of the voice and data switching worlds, these technologies deliver on the promise of convergence," said Marilyn Suey, Assured Access vice president of marketing. "With the new product, service providers can now easily manage thousands of voice, fax and data paths and add new users and services on the fly -- a necessary feature in this quickly evolving market."

The core of the product is Assured Access' NEBS level 3-compliant Universal Access Gateway, a highly scalable product that supports voice, fax and dial-up data (V.90, ISDN) on the same physical interface, enabling service providers to provision all three services in a cost-effective manner.

Built to scale as service providers add new subscribers, the Universal Access Gateway is a high-density dial-up remote access server family that supports more than 2,000 VoIP/FoIP or V.90 data ports per shelf and more than 8,000 VoIP/FoIP ports per standard seven-foot telco rack.

The platform leverages Alcatel's revolutionary 1135 Service Management Center, an integrated management center and H.323 compliant gatekeeper that manages multiple Universal Access Gateways as a single entity.

Already deployed extensively with carriers in Europe and Asia, the software enables service providers to create and manage a service profile for each individual user, a necessary feature for provisioning profitable service level agreements (SLAs).

The Service Management Center also incorporates a RADIUS server that provides the accounting, authentication and authorization functions required with the operation of data networks today.

"With over 8,000 VoIP ports per rack and a unified management interface in the Service Management Center, the Alcatel solution gives service providers both the scalability and the simplicity they need to keep up with customer demand while holding down their operating costs," said Robert Bellman, president of Brook Trail Research.

"By supporting voice, data and fax on the same platform, the Universal Access Gateway not only minimizes equipment costs, but also keeps the provider's network as simple and easy to manage as possible."

"The Alcatel approach to integrated voice, fax and data over IP is exactly the type of solution we have been looking for to provide advanced voice and data services to our customers," said Bret Mingo, president and CEO of CoreCom, a fast-growing CLEC serving the mid-Atlantic region.

"By supporting voice, data and fax on the same interface modules and integrating Alcatel's time-tested voice products, the solution will allow a service provider like CoreCom to provision and manage voice services at a level of granularity that maximizes responsiveness to customer demands while minimizing hardware investments."

Universal Access Gateway

The Universal Access Gateway is a scalable, high-density dial-up remote access server family that supports more than 2,000 VoIP/FoIP or V.90 data ports per shelf and more than 8,000 VoIP/FoIP ports per standard seven-foot telco rack.

With a new universal server module specifically designed for the Universal Access Gateway application, the Alcatel platform can terminate voice and data calls on the same PSTN port, supporting dial-up data, PSTN phone, PSTN fax, PSTN terminal and H.323 terminal calls.

Voice and fax features include the full range of compression, conversion, echo cancellation and encoding schemes including G.711, G.723.1 and G.729A for voice and T.37 and T.38 for fax. The product offers redundancy features and 99.999 percent system availability.

The Universal Access Gateway features digital signal processor (DSP) technology on each card, automatically recognizing and compressing voice and data traffic using a full range of voice and fax protocols.

Designed to provide the flexibility needed at the edge of the service provider's network, the Universal Access Gateway boasts a wide variety of PSTN access interfaces including channelized DS3, T1, E1 and PRI. The Universal Access Gateway also offers industry standard WAN interfaces including 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, ATM on DS3 and OC-3c/STM-1 and frame relay.