Adc: Highest-Density Voip Gateway For Cost-Effective Future-Proof Evolution To Ip Cable Telephony - Cuda Packet Telephony Module - Product Announcement

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Nov 26, 2001

ADC (Nasdaq:ADCT; www.adc.com), a global supplier of fiber optics, network equipment, software and integration services for broadband, multiservice networks, has announced the Cuda Packet Telephony Module (PTM) for the Cuda 12000 IP Access Switch. With this announcement, the Cuda 12000 becomes the industry's first carrier-class cable modem termination system (CMTS) with integrated VoIP gateway functionality.

By combining the fault-tolerant Cuda 12000 - including its CMTS, edge routing and VoIP gateway functionality - with ADC's FastFlow Service Fulfillment suite of converged telephony and data OSS software modules, ADC offers a flexible, unified solution for profitably deploying IP telephony services. The Cuda PTM supports the PacketCable and EuroPacketCable initiatives for delivering IP voice services over cable networks, giving operators the ability to roll out telephony services to more subscribers in more serving areas for lower cost.

"The Cuda Packet Telephony Module represents a milestone for the cable industry and for ADC," said Dave Paolino, president of ADC's IP Cable business unit. "For the first time, cable operators have an evolutionary path to IP telephony that will easily accommodate future growth. In addition, this announcement reflects the continuing innovation that is the result of integrating the talent and technology of our recent acquisitions with our existing cable telephony assets. We are very excited and proud to lead the industry with this new class of voice solutions."

Highly flexible and greatly expandable, the Cuda PTM can scale up to 8,160 DS0/E0 ports and 900k BHCA (busy hour call attempts) per card or over 96,000 ports and 10M BHCA per Cuda chassis. Software configurable on a per DS1/E1 basis to support all trunk types required by service providers simultaneously, ADC's Cuda PTM cost-effectively eases the migration from pure circuit-switched to hybrid and pure IP telephony environments.

"Market conditions are aligning for the successful deployment of IP-based cable telephony," said Ian Olgerison, analyst with Kagen World Media. "ADC is adroitly positioning itself by integrating packet telephony into its Cuda CMTS and FastFlow service fulfillment products."

To help automate the provisioning process for IP telephony, ADC offers FastFlow Service Fulfillment, an elegant software solution for integrating voice and data provisioning that helps the cable operator to deploy voice and data services faster and more efficiently. The FastFlow Service Fulfillment solution includes IP address management, inventory management, telephone number management, voice route optimization and telephony/data provisioning applications for a complete IP cable solution. FastFlow simplifies the complexities associated with the evolution to VoIP by supporting Class 5 circuit switches and softswitches, as well as circuit and packet-based HFC telephony access systems in a multi-vendor environment.

"Comcast is a strong proponent of CableLab's PacketCable initiative, and we applaud ADC's continuing commitment to develop a compelling solution that will be compliant with this effort," said Steve Craddock, senior vice president of new media development, Comcast Corp.

The Cuda PTM incorporates a media gateway (MG), a media gateway controller (MGC) and an SS7/C7 signaling gateway (SG) into a single unit with open, standard and IP addressable interfaces that allow each subsystem to interoperate with third-party Call Management Servers and CMTSs as well as standalone MGCs and SGs. While the Cuda PTM can be deployed in a Cuda chassis dedicated to media gateway functionality, when it is optionally deployed co-resident with the Cuda 12000 CMTS cards, the solution further increases network availability and quality of service by reducing latency and jitter and failure points between otherwise disparate network elements. This solution also reduces space and power requirements, and creates a highly cost-effective, evolutionary path for IP cable telephony. By deploying the Cuda 12000 and FastFlow together, ADC customers enjoy the added benefit of single source accountability, reduced integration costs and faster deployment.

The Cuda PTM's innovative, flexible architectural design incorporates modular daughtercards for the DSP banks and PSTN Interface Module. This design protects an operators' investment and allows for increasing capacity incrementally as their network grows. Customers can separately choose the line interface type and card density for their initial application, and then grow card density in the future by simply adding DSP banks to handle additional simultaneous calls. The Cuda PTM is software configurable on a per DS1/E1 basis to simultaneously provide support for GR303, V5.2, SS7/C7 Inter-Machine Trunks (IMTs), SS7/C7 A or F signaling links, CAS, MF R1/R2, OSPS and E911 trunks.