Empirix Enables Inaugural IMS Forum Plugfest

Market Wire, December, 2006

Empirix ® Inc., which helps organizations adopt complex communications solutions with confidence, announced today that its Hammer DEX development platform for IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems) will be used to conduct a variety of device and service interoperability scenarios at the IMS Forum's first annual Plugfest, taking place January 15-19, 2007, at The University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL). The Plugfest event, at which Empirix is a Platinum sponsor, will focus on key services supported by the IMS reference architecture, beginning with fixed and mobile voice services. Additional services to be verified during the IMS Plugfest will include presence, instant messaging, hosted IP PBX, and VoIP supplemental services over multiple networks, such as 3G Mobile, WiFi, Wireline and Cable broadband.

The IMS Forum's Plugfest will leverage Empirix's portfolio of Hammer test and monitoring platforms to perform the following functions: Voice call generation; SIP session emulation, IMS core device emulation and IMS session monitoring and troubleshooting.

Specifically, Empirix will leverage its Hammer DEX to demonstrate the interoperability of registration and call scenarios covering a number of fixed and mobile environments. Several of these scenarios, such as third party registration and the registration of service subscription, have not been tested at past interoperability events.

"As one of the founding members of the IMS Forum, we're excited to be so heavily involved in the organization's first Plugfest event," said Gordon Beith, Senior Product Manager at Empirix, and an active contributor to the IMS Forum. "The IMS Forum is playing a significant role in helping to move the industry along toward rapid IMS adoption, and having this event at the UNH-IOL is a perfect fit given their success in hosting other multi-vendor carrier-class events."

"Empirix has demonstrated consistent leadership when it comes to helping companies implement new, complex technologies, and their efforts in support of IMS adoption have proven to be just as committed," said Michael Khalilian, President of the IMS Forum and CTO of Pervasip Corp. "As a true IMS thought leader, we're very happy to have Empirix participating in our first Plugfest and look forward to working with the company on future IMS Forum events."

Empirix Hammer DEX is designed to reduce cost and speed up the testing, validation and verification of IMS and VoIP devices, applications and networks. Created to meet the emerging test requirements for IMS and NGN devices, Hammer DEX provides developers, QA labs, service provider labs, system integration and rollout teams with a cost-effective emulation platform that is extensible, multi-user capable, and easy to use.

For 15 years, Empirix's hallmark with the Hammer test and monitoring solutions have helped Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs), Service Providers and Enterprises successfully transition to new technologies, spanning TDM/PSTN, VoIP, NGN, and now IMS-based networks spanning the 3GPP architecture and ETSI TISPAN.

To date, all of the world's Top 10 NEMs and virtually all of the top service providers use Empirix's Hammer solutions. As part of its mission to help enable the adoption of complex new technology waves, Empirix is a member of several quality-focused organizations, including the Multi-Service Forum, the recently launched Voice & Video over IP Quality Alliance (V2oIPQA) and the IMS Forum.

About Empirix

Empirix helps organizations adopt complex communications solutions with confidence. We combine the industry's deepest knowledge of telecommunications and self-service applications with award-winning testing and monitoring solutions to ensure our customers realize the promise of their technology investments. Empirix is the only company with expertise that spans the evolution of these advanced technologies across multiple markets -- from testing in R&D labs through monitoring the end-user experience. For over a decade, thousands of quality-conscious network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises worldwide have trusted Empirix to reduce the time and cost of integrating new technologies into existing environments. Visit www.empirix.com .

About The IMS Forum

The IMS Forum(TM) is a global, non-profit industry association devoted to interoperable IP Multimedia Subsystems services and solutions. The Forum's mission is to accelerate the adoption of IMS through discussion and resolution of interoperability issues, and the development of standards-based IMS services residing in the IMS application layer. The IMS Forum provides consultancy to industry service providers and vendors on best practices and approaches for IMS rollouts and interconnectivity. The IMS Plugfest(TM) facilitates the industry-wide certification of applications and services interoperability. More information is available at www.imsforum.org .

About the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab

The UNH-IOL is a world renowned, vendor neutral testing center associated with the University of New Hampshire. Since its inception in 1988, the laboratory has grown into one of the industry's premier centers for testing and proving cutting-edge networking and data communications products. Testing is conducted in a top-tier, 32,000-square-foot testing facility that houses a wide array testing equipment and devices. Additional equipment is being imported to support the testing needs of the IMS Plugfest 2007.