By Paula Bernier
Posted on: 04/01/2002


Newcomer sentitO Networks tomorrow unveils a SIP- and XML-enabled Class 5 switching solution carriers can leverage to offer a variety of voice, video and data services and to tie third party applications into as well.

Founded by former Salix employees, sentitO will deliver its New End Office product for betas in May.

William Flanagan, sentitO's vice president of marketing explains that NEO includes a multimedia switch with ?full blown÷ Class 5 capabilities; a signaling proxy to SS7; and a service manager for network management of its own products and interconnection to existing popular OSSs.

Service providers can use the product to offload Internet traffic from Class 5 switches, but Flanagan believes the ability to offer a variety of high-value services less expensively than could be done on traditional Class 5 switches will be the key drivers for NEO's adoption by service providers.

Early applications of the switch will include the delivery of POTS and DSL services, data offload and integrating other services like IP Centrex, he says. For IP Centrex, for example, the product's XML and SIP scripts allows the carrier to take a port and map it into a IP Centrex feature server to give it access to outside networks.

NEO is unique in that it integrates access and switching features, Flanagan says. While other next-generation switch vendors deliver only high-speed interfaces, typically at DS3, the sentitO product offers two-wire and four-wire interfaces. Any type of services at any rates are 'soft provisionable÷ over those interfaces, he says. ?Our interfaces are effectively universal ports,÷ he adds.

The switch is hardened so it can be used in central office or remote terminal applications, in the latter case acting as a digital loop carrier.

CLASS features are delivered in XML script, meaning carriers can relatively easily tie into the switch applications from the likes of Microsoft, Broadsoft and Sylantro, Flanagan says.

The product is CALEA compliant and offers emergency stand alone functionality (meaning can switch calls locally if the SS7 network goes down) and can bill based on usage.

Each shelf with two-wire interfaces supports 384 subscribers. Two-wire interface shelfs start at $30,000. Four-wire interface shelves offer DS0 density, supporting up to 4,608 subscribers. A non-RBOC version of the products are slated for commercial availability in the fourth quarter with OSMINE-compliant products scheduled to come out in the first quarter of next year.

http://www.sentito.com/