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Traffic Management Expert Converged Access Introduces the Converged Access Point™, the Industry's First Layer 7, Application-Aware CPE Access Device
Billerica, Mass., April 18, 2005 – Converged Access Inc., a fast-growing provider of application performance management solutions for converged IP WANs, today announced the availability of the Converged Access Point™ (CAP™). The CAP is the first Layer 7, application-aware CPE access device that enables enterprises and service providers to guarantee their end user experience by delivering precise network metrics to each application according to customer-defined policies.
The CAP combines eight years of development of traffic management technology with the most cost-effective integration of IP routing, Ethernet switching, business-class security, wireless and wired access, and voice interfaces. By architecting an integrated multi-function access device around advanced traffic management technology, the CAP provides the highest level of application performance at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO).
The CAP was developed for the service provider, small enterprise, and enterprise remote offices/branch offices markets. Service providers are actively seeking to expand their managed IP service offerings, particularly for their small and medium business (SMB) customers. Delivering on the promise of true IP convergence, the CAP is a new generation of Layer 7 customer premises solutions that optimize the delivery of toll-quality voice, critical data, and video across a converged IP network.
After an unsuccessful experience with their existing router network, Vermont Legal Aid ( Burlington, Vermont) was in search of a solution that would allow the voice quality on their WAN to consistently be of the highest quality. “We were experiencing voice quality issues with our converged network for several months. After the CAP installation, we have experienced excellent VoIP quality with no user complaints,” said Mike Bayer, administrator, Vermont Legal Aid.
“The CAP’s advanced QoS features solved our customers’ delay and jitter problems,” said Zoltan Keve, vice president of sales, Caleidoscope Communications, a Verizon Authorized Agent. “We are looking to implement the CAP in several other customers.”
Alternative solutions to the CAP — stand-alone routers, DSL modems and IADs — lack several critical traffic management technologies, including Layer 7 support, packet size control, TCP rate shaping, class-based queuing, bandwidth borrowing, and ToS marking that are necessary to protect voice traffic. These solutions can’t control individual IP flows and therefore, can’t guarantee toll-quality voice.
The CAP leverages Converged Access’ QoSWorks R patented traffic management technology and proprietary algorithms to provide identification and control of all individual traffic flows across the access network. Converged Access enables enterprises and service providers to turn their existing Layer 2/Layer 3 networks into Layer 7, application-aware networks, giving them the ability to discover, classify, and monitor applications and set policies for high-priority applications.Service providers can finally deliver IP services with guaranteed bandwidth availability to enterprises while meeting QoS commitments and SLAs.
“Converged Access’ market-proven technology is now saving organizations such as NBC, Coca-cola, Wegmans, and UNICEF millions of dollars, and more importantly, enabling them to gain far greater usage and functionality from telephony and converged applications,” said Malik Khan, founder and CEO, Converged Access. “We’ve put this key functionality into a platform designed to meet the economic and TCO requirements of SMBs, giving carriers a means to expand their SMB service offerings.”
Key CAP benefits include:
- Increased revenue — The Layer 7 per-flow capability enables service providers to provide clear differentiation from commodity VoIP and offer differentiated, tiered services.
- Guaranteed VoIP toll quality — The advanced traffic management technologies optimize WAN application performance for SMBs and remote enterprise branches, guaranteeing the quality and predictability of VoIP calls.
- Cost savings — The CAP replaces multiple products, reducing CPE costs by 50 percent, and provides additional savings in ongoing maintenance, network administration, and staging costs.
- Simplicity — By consolidating multiple network functions into a single device under common operating system, the CAP greatly reduces network and operational complexities.
“The SMB VoIP market has remained relatively under-served during the recent explosion of VoIP deployment. Larger enterprises have larger staffs to handle implementation, while the residential market has been addressed aggressively with simple-to-install services and products. The SMB market has a need for the simplicity of the residential market, but many of the more complex features — such as support for SIP capabilities, sophisticated firewalls, and traffic management — that are more typical of the larger enterprises,” said Steven Taylor, president of consulting firm Distributed Networking Associates and publisher of Webtorials. “All-in-one access solutions, like the CAP, that address these challenges and can deliver toll-quality voice will be well positioned as the market matures.”
In addition to advanced traffic management technology, the initial version of the CAP features:
- High performance IP routing — 10 Mb WAN link speed.
- Four port 10/100 Ethernet Switch.
- Business-class security — ICSA certifiable firewall; IPSec VPN support, H/W- based encryption.
- Extensive voice capabilities — supports up to 50 SIP calls on a T1 and includes four-port analog gateway, fax support and integral SIP/H323/MGCP voice gateway.
- Optional 802.11 b/g wireless access point (WAP) — allows customers to use and benefit from wireless LANs as well as the newly-emerging wifi/cellular dual-mode phones.
- High performance routing allows the products to be used with a wide range of WAN services including T1, ADSL2+, as well as emerging metropolitan Ethernet services.
The CAP’s pricing starts at $850. The first members of the product family are currently shipping in volume. Converged Access will demo the CAP in booth #1876 (located in start up city) at NetWorld+Interop 2005, which is being held from May 3-5 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Formed in May 2004 by a management buyout of traffic management expert Sitara Networks, Converged Access is a fast-growing provider of application performance management solutions for converged IP WANs. The company’s products provide the highest application performance at the lowest total cost of ownership. Converged Access’ technology and products have been successfully deployed by leading service providers such as MCI and SBC and blue-chip enterprise customers, including NBC, Wegmans, Coca-Cola, UNICEF and BOSE. Converged Access is headquartered in Billerica , Massachusetts .
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