MetaSwitch Announces New Technologies

Switching vendor MetaSwitch on Monday announced a range of new technologies as part of its Multimedia-Enhanced Telephony Architecture (META) strategy, targeted at carriers migrating to converged multiservice networks.

The addition of Home Subscriber Server (HSS) support delivers a key component in IMS networks, to create an efficient service creation and delivery program for different services and different types of access networks. The company also announced functionality for core trunking/tandem switching applications, enhanced operational and network management capabilities, and an expanded professional services program.

The vendor also announced it has passed 6 million subscriber licenses and 2 million gateway port deployments. In addition, the company has been ranked as one of the top two leading vendors in the North American Class 5 softswitch market, according to a recent report issued by Infonetics Research.

“Carriers are aggressively moving toward IMS-based architectures to support advance IP services and MetaSwitch is committed to enabling our customers to make this transition smoothly and cost effectively,” said John Lazar, MetaSwitch CEO. “This success-based migration is enabled by the combined features within MetaSwitch’s unique single solution set that now ranges from core network switching to powerful multimedia-enhanced applications. With the enhancements we are announcing today, we are able to offer carriers a stand-out solution with a solid reputation for reliability and carrier-grade performance.”

Carriers can now leverage standard functions defined by IMS for access to subscriber information in an HSS with an open interface that enables application servers to add, retrieve and update service profile information held for each subscriber, using the IMS standard XML schema. Opening up access to external application servers in this way will enable third-party developers, including carriers themselves, to rapidly create new services that integrate seamlessly with the MetaSwitch IMS switching platform.

MetaSwitch also unveiled new core switching capabilities designed to enable carriers to collapse traditional hierarchical Class 4/Class 5 networks to a flat network architecture based on a centralized session control function. With support for a broad range of traditional trunking protocols, packet tandem functions and intelligent, flexible routing control, these new capabilities provide significant advantages for regional and national service providers – setting the stage for a cost-effective, revenue-based migration to IMS-based services.

MetaSwitch also recently completed the IBM/Micromuse Netcool certification process, which enables carriers to integrate MetaSwitch platforms into any Netcool-managed network, and ultimately allow for real-time, end-to-end network management. Netcool solutions are widely deployed by wireline, wireless and cable operators, including the world’s largest 20 carriers, the vendor said.

In addition, MetaSwitch has formed a partnership with TeleSciences based on the proven interoperability with TeleSciences 600i Mediation Platform and MetaSwitch's multimedia-enhanced telephony solutions. This partnership enables blended billing across multiple wireline, mobile and cable services delivered in an IMS framework.

To meet the needs of its growing customer base, MetaSwitch has built a professional services organization for complete turnkey deployments, project management and technology consulting services. Many of MetaSwitch's larger customers are leveraging these capabilities to increase efficiency, reduce time-to-revenue for new market initiatives, or smoothly migrate hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a short time period.

MetaSwitch www.metaswitch.com

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