Anritsu Brings Powerful VoIP Features to InterQuest for Rapid QoS Verification of IP Network and Services; Rapidly growing VoIP market spurs new focus on network monitoring

Business Wire, March 14, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Anritsu Corporation, a global provider of operational support solutions for advanced and converged networks, announced today at VON Conference & Expo (March 14-17, 2006, San Jose Convention Center, San Jose), powerful VoIP features for its InterQuest Analyzer, thus expanding the Anritsu portfolio for extensive and effective VoIP monitoring that has become a critical necessity for VoIP service providers.

Anritsu's InterQuest Analyzer VoIP provides service providers with a single tool to track network and service quality while providing the means to measure how end customers experience service quality. It enables service providers to quickly provision, troubleshoot and optimize convergent networks across VoIP and SS7 domains. Designed with advanced applications for service testing, network monitoring and data acquisition for existing and next-generation networks in a single box, InterQuest Analyzer is a highly efficient tool for testing interoperability in increasingly complex networks while simultaneously automating trivial tasks and reducing operational costs.

"InterQuest VoIP is a powerful tool to help our customers expedite the detection and resolution of problems in their IP and SS7 network, verify QoS of their IP network, and document interconnect SLAs," said Thomas Jensen, vice president and head of the Service Assurance Business Unit of Anritsu. "With this new offering, Anritsu is geared for further expansion into the rapidly growing VoIP monitoring market."

Capable of analyzing voice quality, jitter, latency, delay, and packet loss, InterQuest Analyzer VoIP can predetermine if voice quality will deteriorate. The product also provides the most cost-efficient way of passively monitoring RTP and RTCP packet flows in the network to ensure that service providers deliver the quality that customers demand. In addition, InterQuest allows service providers to analyze voice payload quality without the need for costly subjective tests with listeners, by providing objective measurements to produce a MOS (Mean Opinion Score) clarity index for measuring voice quality of calls.

Likewise, InterQuest helps service providers document voice quality SLAs with interconnect partners and customers to meet contractual commitments.

InterQuest's multi-user capability allows up to eight users to analyze, simultaneously and independently, different parts of the monitored network, thus optimizing work routines while minimizing investment in other test solutions.

Key features of the InterQuest Analyzer VoIP include:

--Voice quality analysis with MOS, jitter, delay, and packet loss

--VoIP protocol analysis and sequencing

--SIP & ISUP correlation, SIP/SIP-T, H.323, MGCP, SIGTRAN, RTCP/ RTP, BICC, H.248/MEGACO

--Unique multi-user support for optimized rapid troubleshooting

--Multi-protocol analysis for 'on the spot' troubleshooting

--Call & session tracer

--GSM, CDMA, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, SS7/ISDN, VoIP

--Real-time live streaming of data to hard disk and historical analysis for highest possible analyzer availability

--Advanced statistical processing with intuitive statistical information

--Remote or local operation

--Modular and multi-technology platform for cost-efficient migration to emerging services & technologies

"The new VoIP capabilities of the InterQuest enable Anritsu to meet service providers' growing requirements for VoIP monitoring," said Frost & Sullivan's Jessy Cavazos, Program Manager, Communications Test & Measurement. "Going forward, the company is expected to continue to enhance its offering to meet future end-user needs. IP Multi-media Subsystem (IMS) is likely to be one of such targeted areas. Already, the new VoIP features being introduced today pave the way for Anritsu to launch dedicated IMS solutions in the future. Anritsu is expected to leverage its leadership in HSDPA/HSUPA base station and user equipment testing for the benefit of the InterQuest platform."

About Anritsu and NetTest

Anritsu Corporation (www.anritsu.com) has been a global provider of innovative communications solutions for more than 110 years. With the recent acquisition of NetTest (www.nettest.com) and offices throughout the world, Anritsu provides solutions for existing and next-generation wired and wireless communication systems and operators. The company's measurement solutions include wireless, optical, microwave/RF, and digital instruments, Operations Support Systems and solutions that can be used during R&D, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance. Anritsu also provides precision microwave/RF components, optical devices, and high-speed devices for design into communication products and systems. The recently combined companies sell in over 90 countries worldwide and have approximately 4,000 employees.