Acme Packet unveils solutions for IMS architectures

Products are designed to help service providers simplify and scale IP Multimedia Subsystem architectures and service delivery networks

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

At the just concluded Mobile World Congress held last week in Barcelona, Acme Packet unveiled three significant products that are designed to help service providers simplify and scale IP Multimedia Subsystem architectures and service delivery networks. The new solutions include the Net-Net SIP Multimedia-xpress (SMX); the Net-Net 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer (SLB) and Net-Net SBC Cluster; and the Net-Net Route Manager Central (RMC).

The Best of Mobile World Congress 2010

Acme Packet's Net-Net SMX offers session control over an IMS-equivalent of a Rich Communications Suite (RCS) or Next Generation Network delivery platform for as few as 100,000 subscribers; it is priced from $2 to $3 per subscriber. The SMX builds on the company's successful access session border controller (SBC) and is designed to simplify network architectures and operations, thereby reducing capital expenditures and operating expenses.

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At the just concluded Mobile World Congress held last week in Barcelona, Acme Packet unveiled three significant products that are designed to help service providers simplify and scale IP Multimedia Subsystem architectures and service delivery networks. The new solutions include the Net-Net SIP Multimedia-xpress (SMX); the Net-Net 4500 Session-aware Load Balancer (SLB) and Net-Net SBC Cluster; and the Net-Net Route Manager Central (RMC).

The Best of Mobile World Congress 2010

Acme Packet's Net-Net SMX offers session control over an IMS-equivalent of a Rich Communications Suite (RCS) or Next Generation Network delivery platform for as few as 100,000 subscribers; it is priced from $2 to $3 per subscriber. The SMX builds on the company's successful access session border controller (SBC) and is designed to simplify network architectures and operations, thereby reducing capital expenditures and operating expenses.

The Net-Net 4500 SLB and Net-Net SBC Cluster provide additional scale for the Net-Net SMX solution for up to 2 million subscribers from a single IP address for SIP signaling, according to the company.  The SLB can also be used with any Acme Packet access SBC deployment.

The third product introduced, Acme Packet's Net-Net RMC is designed to consolidate and "automate the management and distribution of up to 2 million routes per Acme Packet SBC and session routing proxies (SRPs) within Acme Packet's Open Session Routing architecture," according to the company. 

Commenting on the three products, Joe McGarvey, principal analyst with Current Analysis, said:  "Acme Packet continues to focus on the pragmatic with the introduction of new products and features to its Net-Net product family, which some operators may find attractive as fast-track and cost-efficient options for delivering voice, RCS and other SIP-based communication services."

Our observations:  Acme Packet has proven its leadership capabilities with its SBC solutions, and comes off a successful year with its existing products.  As it expands its reach across IMS architectures now offering other IMS-critical components, we will closely monitor its success as it now competes against top-tier infrastructure suppliers like Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and Nokia Siemens Networks.   

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.