Telco Systems Announces New Service Management Platform

MANSFIELD, Mass. (BUSINESS WIRE) In order to overcome the service deployment and management challenges faced by providers in their IP and Carrier Ethernet networks, Telco Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of BATM Advanced Communications (London stock exchange BVC), has announced a new service management platform which addresses full life cycle deployment of services in Carrier Ethernet and MPLS edge networks. Telco Systems' EdgeGenie Service Management System revolutionizes the way providers manage the Ethernet edge network.

EdgeGenie allows providers to not only visualize how services are being transported across the network end-to-end, but how changes to the network will affect the existing operational network and how services are being delivered. A robust resource management and optimization application provides carriers a profound understanding of their network bottlenecks, allowing them to better ensure a higher level of customer satisfaction while optimizing their network resources. EdgeGenie's forecasting and trend analysis tool is the first of its kind for Ethernet edge networks. This unique application enables providers to anticipate how adding customers and services will affect the existing network.

EdgeGenie is an integral part of the Company's strategy to redefine the multi-service Ethernet edge - the area of the network that sits between the customer edge and the provider edge - by making it more intelligent and more efficient.

"When multiple networks and services are consolidated over a single infrastructure, the size and complexity of the network increases dramatically. Implementing intelligence between the customer edge and the provider edge enables these services to be monitored and guaranteed," stated Nir Daube, vice president of product management at Telco Systems. "The combination of highly intelligent and flexible edge devices that use a common operating system and an intuitive service management platform offers the opportunity for service providers to transform the user experience and differentiate service offerings."

Other key features of EdgeGenie include:
    * Complete FCAPS Network & Service Management - allows the operator to have a complete fulfillment and assurance management of the network and services.
    * Root-cause analysis - Provides a view of the affected services from network faults. This tool allows the NOC operator to quickly understand which network faults affect services and initiate corrective actions.
    * Resource management - Allows the operator to pinpoint the heavily utilized links, ports and network elements to understand exactly where the bottlenecks exist and where to invest CAPEX in upgrading bandwidth, or how to distribute traffic across the current network better, without investing additional CAPEX.
    * Provisioning engine - Provides smart computation profiles to allow the operator to wisely distribute traffic across the network. In addition, the provisioning engine can configure failover mechanisms and compute redundant paths throughout the network to protect services.
    * Network and service planning - Allows carriers to run "what if" scenarios on their existing network topology, experiment with new topologies and services planning or estimate enhancements to their existing operational network.
    * Service analyzer - Simplifies access to information about each service using an intuitive GUI representation of the service.
    * Multi-transport support - Provisions services over Ethernet, MPLS or combination of both Ethernet and MPLS.
    * Co-exists with the core network and third party vendor devices.EdgeGenie supports the Company's demarcation and aggregation switches which are purpose-built for the carrier's Ethernet edge. They embody a wide range of features including standards-based OAM, a choice of resiliency protocols including G.8031 and G-8032, support for multiple transport mechanisms like QinQ, VPLS, or HVPLS using L2VPNs, and offer advanced provisioning capabilities for pre-configuration and auto-configuration, and remote troubleshooting and diagnosis features like RFC 2544-based embedded test heads and loopback options.

"EdgeGenie allows providers to take control of the thousands of devices at the edge of the network that can make or break the delivery of services," stated Avi Cohen, vice president of marketing and business development at Telco Systems. "By focusing on the services in the edge network, providers can deliver the necessary service fulfillment, service assurance and service engineering functions that are critical to the carrier's IP/Ethernet infrastructure and revenue stream."