MetaSwitch Jumps on SDP Bandwagon

In an effort to help service providers counterbalance wireline voice revenue losses and stem churn, MetaSwitch is pushing further into the applications sphere with the introduction of what it’s calling a service delivery platform (SDP).

There’s no standard definition for SDP, but what most folks think of when you say service delivery platform these days is a Web-based solution for creating and deploying a variety of services, and interfacing to necessary OSS and BSS systems at the service provider, regardless of the service- or network-type. The idea behind this new generation of SDPs, being promulgated at the IT vendors like BEA, IBM and Oracle, is all about breaking down single-service silos.

However, while Martin Taylor, MetaSwitch’s senior vice president of product management and strategy, said MetaSphere could theoretically work for any application, he indicates that this product is optimized for telephony-type applications. That makes sense, given MetaSwitch is a softswitch vendor. But it kind of goes against the idea of breaking down silos.

In any case, Taylor said that it would be more difficult for “general purpose” SDPs from companies such as those mentioned above to create and support some of the applications MetaSphere aims to address, given MetaSwitch has a “mastery of telephony.”

The MetaSphere solution includes a service creation and personalization environment as well as prepackaged applications.

MetaSwitch already offered an application and services environment, and some prepackaged applications, noted Taylor. What’s new here is the service creation environment and some new or enhanced applications. The Java- and XML-based service creation and personalization environment offered under the MetaSphere umbrella is referred to as SCAPE.

“SCAPE is the tool that allows for new IVR capability to become developed quickly through a GUI,” said Taylor.

The MetaSphere solution overall aims to help service providers and their partners create and introduce new services and features “at Google lab speed as opposed to BellLabs speed,” he added.

SCAPE supports carrier-grade availability and scalability to tens of millions of users via clustering of commercial off-the-shelf server hardware, a service capability interaction manager (SCIM) to facilitate interaction between multiple applications, and a library of common services providing access to media server, session control, virtual home subscriber server (HSS) data storage, diagnostic, provisioning, auditing/logging and billing functions. Another key element of the MetaSphere SDP is CommPortal, MetaSwitch’s previously announced user interface.

Among the applications offered as part of MetaSphere are an enhanced version of MetaSwitch’s unified messaging application, this one with a new feature called Live Message Screening; a rich version of the company’s incoming call manager tool which lets users set their own policies for what happens to calls coming from various individuals or groups, or based on time of day or day of week; a new productivity tool called the Desktop Communications Manager; and a new “fixed mobile convergence” application that rings multiple phones (which can be a collection of wireless and wireline phones) and allows the end user to easily transfer calls between those endpoints.

The MetaSphere product can be used with or separate from the MetaSwitch softswitch, but is generally sold along side the company’s core product, said Taylor, adding this new offer fits nicely with the idea of IMS, which is all about abstracting the services layer from the network layer in an attempt to allow for more and faster service delivery.

MetaSwitch www.metaswitch.com

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