A new consortium of telecommunications companies hopes to boost compatibility and interoperability between traditional telephone networks and IP networks by creating and promoting open standards for IP distributed network architecture.
Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent and Nortel Networks are among the founding members of the International Softswitch Consortium. Founders yesterday issued a statement that compared today's telecom market shift toward IP networks to the shift from mainframes to distributed client-server systems.
The consortium will promote open standards and application development for hardware and software platforms that can link traditional telephone networks with information and applications currently available only on the Internet, the group said. The technologies needed to link traditional and IP networks are called softswitches, the consortium said.
Greater use of softswitches will help network operators provide traditional and new services at lower costs, the consortium said.
The International Softswitch Consortium will operate as a nonprofit corporation. Members will have access to an interoperability test lab.
RELATED LINKS
Network World, 03/22/99
How IP-based networks will conquer telecom
Network World, 03/15/99
Softswitch Consortium Web site
1999: The year of interoperability?
Network World, 01/18/99
Ascend, Cisco and others support iNow
Network World, 12/17/98
