Alcatel acquires session border controller technology for VoIP
30 January 2003 -- Paris-based equipment supplier Alcatel SA has acquired the technology of privately held Aravox Technologies Corp of Arden Hills, Minnesota.
Aravox's technology will become a part of Alcatel's Next Generation Network portfolio, which offers advanced voice over IP turnkey solutions, by adding a session border controller to the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch-based solutions. The Aravox session border controller, relying on the IETF Midcom standard, makes real-time packet peering over IP secure and ensures quality of service and high availability of network resources to the end-to-end communications it controls.
Aravox's session border controller delivers the means to manage availability of network resources for the sessions it controls due to its architecture based on highly powerful customised network processors. The border controllers can be deployed as an on-premise or in-the-network solution, and in distributed or centralised architectures.
With the acquisition, Alcatel says that it offers a complete solution for both carrier-to-carrier peering and service provider-to-enterprise peering. It will "significantly enhance the value of our next-generation network solutions offered to our customers and will drive the transition to value-added real-time IP applications," said Michel Rahier, president of Alcatel's fixed-network activities.
"Alcatel's acquisition of Aravox will enable the company to aggressively address issues of carrier-to-carrier interconnect and support for IP PBXs," says Christin J Flynn, director Communications Network Infrastructure, The Yankee Group.