New Opportunities
Service providers – whether incumbent or competitive
carriers, large or small – are faced with similar issues.
- How to address the significant opportunities, as well
as the increased competition, opened up by
technology and regulation?
- How to ensure a smooth migration from the legacy
TDM world to VoIP and next generation networks?
- How to introduce new revenue-generating
applications while cutting costs – without
compromising existing levels of service?
With the MetaSwitch VP3500 Series Class 5 Softswitch,
service providers can address a wide range of
applications – maximizing return on investment.
Class 5 Replacement
The MetaSwitch VP3500 series is a genuine alternative
to legacy Class 5 switches. With support for protocols
such as GR-303, SS7 and PRI, as well as local tandem
capabilities, service providers have the option of
wholesale replacement or “cap and grow” migration.
In addition, MetaSwitch opens up the possibility of
delivering next generation services – including VoIP and
enhanced SIP applications – from the same platform.
Circuit to Packet Migration
Like the TDM-based digital loop carriers that came
before them, broadband loop carriers are emerging as a
revolutionary force in the access network. In place of
GR-303, POTS lines are backhauled over packet trunks
using MGCP, H.248, SIP, or ATM.
MetaSwitch’s proven support for voice over IP and ATM,
and interoperability partnerships with all the major next
generation access vendors, enable carriers to start
down that migration path when they’re ready – even if
that’s right away.
VoB, IP Centrex and Triple-Play
With over 3 years’ experience deploying VoIP and
VoATM, MetaSwitch is the industry’s leading platform for
Class 5 voice over broadband services. And, thanks to
its business group (Centrex) capabilities, fully featured
IP Centrex can be offered to small businesses with IP
phones or Integrated Access Devices.
In a triple-play environment, packet voice is delivered
alongside video and data services over DSL, cable or
fiber networks. In all these applications, the VP3500
series’ packet voice capabilities remove the need for a
voice gateway. As a result, voice quality is improved and
the network is significantly simplified.
CLEC/Out-of-Region Expansion
The MetaSwitch VP3500 series is particularly appealing
to competitive service providers – either “pure” CLECs
or existing providers seeking to expand to new areas.
MetaSwitch’s distributed softswitch architecture and
support for broadband loop carriers facilitate collocation,
least cost routing and packet backhaul for the most costeffective
network architecture possible.
UNE-P Migration
For CLECs currently offering “UNE-P” or resale services,
MetaSwitch enables a proven, reliable migration strategy
to their own facilities. Residential and business
subscribers can be seamlessly transferred and offered
new applications unavailable from the incumbent provider.
Rich Native Feature Set
The MetaSwitch call agent supports over 100 Class 5
features including a full set of custom calling and
Centrex services. In addition, customers with PBXs can
be served over T1, ISDN-PRI, ATM or IP access
networks.
The upshot is that a wide range of services can be
delivered without requiring a third-party feature server.
Enhanced Services Interface
In addition to its rich set of native features, the VP3500
series’ open softswitch architecture enables the delivery
of enhanced services via a flexible SIP-based feature
creation interface. This permits service providers to
employ third party feature servers or create their own
applications using industry standard building blocks.
Regulatory Compliance
Service providers are aware of their obligations to
provide equal access, lawful interception (CALEA), local
number portability (LNP), accurate billing, E911 and
other services mandated by authorities.
MetaSwitch addresses all of these requirements without
external servers – and in many cases (for example,
LNP) can provide a drop-in solution to avoid costly
legacy switch upgrades.
Carrier-Class Reliability
The VP3500 series was engineered from the ground up
for carrier-class 99.999% reliability. Naturally, all active
hardware components are 1:1 or N:1 redundant. More
important for softswitch reliability, however, is the
approach to software fault tolerance.
The VP3500 employs a carefully designed scheme of
state replication, thousands of internal consistency
checks and synchronization with each interface card in
the event of transfer of control from the primary to
backup processor. The result is that catastrophic failures
are avoided, active calls stay up and carrier-class
reliability is achieved.
Scalability and Flexibility
With a revolutionary single-blade media gateway and
distributed softswitch architecture, MetaSwitch delivers
unmatched scalability – both down and up.
- Base configurations start at under 300 lines in a
single integrated Class 5 switching system.
- In a distributed network, a redundant pair of call
agents can support up to 500,000 subscribers.
Working with the call agent via H.248, each media
gateway can handle 28,224 simultaneous calls with
echo cancellation and transcoding on every channel,
in less than a third of a rack.
- VP3500 series media gateways can act as signaling
gateways and/or tandems for least cost routing and
SS7 A-link concentration.
The result is a solution that meets the demands of small
rural telcos as well as the largest tier 1 carriers.
Ease of Deployment
The VP3500 series is delivered “ready to go” and can be
installed in less than a week. Deployment is simplified
by the easy-to-use management system and open
interfaces for integration with external OSS systems. In
addition, standard GR-1100 format CDRs are processed
without difficulty by all major billing systems.
