Service Provider Networks / (none) /

Sonus debuts management package for packet telephony

By David Rohde
The Edge, 09/07/00

Sonus Networks this week introduced a Web-based system for unified management of all the distributed elements in its packet telephony suite for service providers.

The new Sonus Insight element-management system brings together administration of the company's GSX9000 Open Services Switch, PSX6000 SoftSwitch and SGX2000 SS7 Signaling Gateway.

The system enables network administrators for packet-telephony carriers to provision services, monitor and isolate equipment faults, monitor system performance and collect billing information.

Just like the Sonus packet-telephony suite itself, Sonus Insight is designed for larger carriers with national or multinational networks and multiple network operations centers. It runs on Sun Solaris on Sun Netra servers and can be used by potentially hundreds of concurrent client-side users with at least Netscape Navigator 4.7 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0.

For the most part, the system relies on Java server pages generating HTML pages, rather than using Java on the client side. The reason is inherent in the application – wide-area packet telephony – that it supports, according to Sonus officials. "It's a fairly heavyweight thing to send Java applets over the WAN," says Bruce Trvalik, Sonus' director of management products.

Still, Sonus wanted to stick to a fully Web-based system, something that has been much promoted for network management in the telecom industry but not always carried through. "That way we're not talking about a monolithic application anymore," says Trvalik. Sonus can easily enhance the management package and customers can easily customize it, much as Web sites in general are easier to update than older client/server application suites, Trvalik explains.

The user interface for individual network administrators has what officials call a "Microsoft Office look and feel" with shallow nesting of screens for rapid information access. "Keeping in mind that it's over a WAN, if you have to click through too many screens it gets very tedious," says Trvalik.

To deliver accounting and billing capabilities in Sonus Insight, Sonus also announced an OEM relationship with AP Engines, a provider of service creation and billing mediation systems for carriers. For service providers using Sonus packet telephony that share customer activity data with incumbent telcos, AP Engines provides hooks into the Bellcore-originated call-detail reporting formats still in use at many of the Bell companies. Competitive service providers still must purchase their own next-generation billing package to create the customer bills, though.

Sonus Insight is available now at a list price of $50,000 per system, which Trvalik calls a "pretty aggressive price."

Sonus has recently grabbed a number of major carrier contracts, including Intermedia, Time Warner Telecom, Global Crossing and Broadband Office. Its stock has zoomed since its May IPO from $23 to as high as $281 a share and has recently settled around $150. The company last month said it will split the stock 3-for-1.