tekelec tapped for hybrid, voip networks

TEKELEC RECENTLY HAS COMPLETED a number of deployments that demonstrate the flexibility of the company’s products to enable a range of strategies for migration to VoIP.

The company has provided the full suite of its next-generation switching products for Canadian service provider FCI Broadband, a CLEC that is using the infrastructure to bridge its existing TDM network and new VoIP offerings.

FCI will deploy the Tekelec T9000 (which combines the functionality of the T8000 media gateway and T3000 softswitch), the T6000 application server and the Eagle 5 Signaling Application System for signaling for network-based applications such as messaging, and for protocol conversions.

Paul Miller, vice president of switching product line management at Tekelec, says the new infrastructure “allows TDM switches to access new services on a SIP network, plus it allows SIP networks to access legacy features. The services from the T6000 can be delivered to both VoIP and TDM customers, and the Eagle 5 can invoke AIN-type services and make them available to IP users. Carriers already have invested in that infrastructure, and they don’t want to pay again for it.”

Miller says the Tekelec infrastructure brings distributed switching into a TDM environment. “The T9000 is distributed switching, call control separated from line and trunk interfaces.” TDM service providers can use distributed switching to go into new territories with familiar services. “It is a fully capable Class 5 and Class 4 switch. Some next-gen switches put everything in one physical platform, but this can be in one location or distributed,” Miller says.

FCI is using the new infrastructure to support a cap-and-grow migration strategy. “They are capping their investment in TDM switches and doing all the growth on the T9000,” Miller says. “To that they are adding VoIP applications with the T6000, such as simultaneous ring, Web portals and combined messaging such as voice mail to e-mail.”

Meanwhile, Nevada Telephone, a CLEC serving 30,000 customers in Las Vegas and former UNE-P operator, has deployed next-generation Class 5 switches by Taqua (a brand of Tekelec) to move to a facilities-based model. Now the CLEC is adding VoIP using the Tekelec Santera platform.