Thursday, January 14, 2010

BroadSoft Sees Momentum for Packet Island's SaaS-based QoS Assessment

In the three months since BroadSoft acquired Packet Island, a provider of Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring and assessment solutions, the company reports continued moment, customer traction and product development. The company is also introducing a new commercial licensing model under which service providers can now license the software directly from BroadSoft, while leveraging the existing PacketSmart infrastructure for hosting rather than deploying the platform internally.


"With the rapid growth of media convergence, service providers are quickly recognizing they need to actively monitor and diagnose service quality issues and proactively troubleshoot network problems on the customer premises," said Ken Rokoff, vice president of business development of BroadSoft. "We are pleased at the early success of PacketSmart and the mounting interest from our existing customers. PacketSmart's momentum continues to build in response to the rapid adoption of IP voice and video and our unique ability to guarantee end-to-end 'carrier-grade' service delivery for converged media networks."


New features and functionality currently under development for the PacketSmart solution include:

  • High-definition Voice support -- PacketSmart's network VoIP readiness monitoring and assessments services now include HD network deployments and HD quality metrics.


  • Network discovery -- Service provider field engineers can perform discovery of network elements at the enterprise site to better profile the local area network (LAN) before VoIP or video deployments.


  • QoE Alerting -- Service providers can set QoE threshold metrics and receive alerts of problems via various methods (e.g., Short Message Service (SMS), email, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)) before the enterprise discovers and reports an issue.


  • Media loopback -- Service providers can run media tests from the enterprise/service provider demarcation point to end-user IP phones to simplify the deployment verification process and enable remote troubleshooting.


In addition, BroadSoft announced that NuVox, a CLEC serving 90,000 lines across sixteen states, will use PacketSmart for assessing and verifying VoIP deployments and troubleshooting difficult-to-identify issues that affect call quality. The company is planning a deployment of PacketPro, which will provide their field service technicians with the capability to perform VoIP network assessments, VoIP deployment verifications, and collaborative VoIP/data diagnosis.
http://www.broadsoft.com

Ericsson Sends Container-based GSM System to Haiti

The UN has requested that Ericsson deploy its Ericsson Response organization to aid relief work in disaster-stricken Haiti. Ericsson has sent a container-based mini GSM-system to Haiti along with four telecom experts.
http://www.ericsson.com