WAN Controller Provides VoIP Redundancy

A growing number of small and medium businesses are turning to Voice over IP (VoIP) to cut their telecommunications costs. One challenge is this transport option is not as reliable as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Consequently, one network equipment vendor is trying to close that gap.Ecessa announced ClariLink, a WAN link controller designed to support VoIP transmissions. The product improves network reliability by supporting redundant links and automatic, real time failover for such connections. ClariLink includes a SIP Proxy, a SIP Registration Server, and a Network Address Translation (NAT) Proxy that allow SIP traffic to be load balanced and support failover features among multiple WAN links.

Many small and medium businesses have been making the switch from PSTN to VoIP voice services, however, reliability has been one challenge with VoIP. In the PSTN, a network connection is only established when there is a clear path between the two end points. Because of that, users have come to expect 100% reliability with their calls. With IP, there are no such guarantees. Information moves from point to point as bandwidth becomes available. Consequently, there is a possibility that problems may arise along one of these connections, and ClariLink is designed to help address such issues.

Ecessa has had its eyes firmly focused on the small and medium business market and identified an interesting, emerging need among these companies: the desire for more reliable VoIP connections. However despite having a corporate heritage that stretches back to 1968, the vendor is relatively small and unknown. In March, the vendor changed its name from Astrocom to Ecessa in an attempt to revitalize its market position. How well those efforts will fare is unclear, so potential customers need to balance their interest in the new controller versus the challenges that come with working with a second tier supplier.