Data Connection Announces DC-MGCP/DC-Megaco Protocol Software.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2000

Product family provides OEMs with portable, scalable,

fault-tolerant source code for provider-class

MGCP and Megaco/H.248 products

Data Connection Limited (DCL), the world's leading provider of communications protocol software, today announced that it is extending its highly successful ATM, MPLS and SS7 converged network product suite to add support for MGCP and Megaco/H.248 media gateway control protocols.

MGCP and Megaco./H.248 are media gateway control protocols defined by the IETF and ITU-T for use in distributed switching environments, where signalling logic is located on Media Gateway Controllers (MGCs - also known as Call Agents or SoftSwitches) and media logic is located on Media Gateways (MGs). Using MGCP or Megaco/H.248, MGCs can control MGs to set up media (e.g. voice traffic) paths through the distributed network. This architecture allows for specialisation of function and economies of scale and is expected to become the architecture of choice in next generation converged voice/data IP networks.

The new DC-MGCP/DC-Megaco product family provides OEMs with a flexible source code solution with the same high quality architecture and support for which DCL's other communications software is renowned. DC-MGCP and DC-Megaco run within DCL's existing high performance portable execution environment - the N-BASE. This provides extensive scalability and flexibility by enabling distribution of protocol components across a wide range of hardware configurations from DSPs to line cards to specialized signalling processors. It has fault tolerance designed in from the start, enabling hot swapping on a component by component basis on failure or upgrade of hardware or software.

DC-MGCP and DC-Megaco are suitable for use in a wide range of MGC and MG devices, including residential gateways, trunking gateways, Call Agents and SoftSwitches, and enhanced service platforms, such as IVR announcement servers. Support is provided for all the relevant IETF Megaco Working Group drafts and RFCs (including RFC 2705), ITU-T standards (including H.248) and other key standards (such as PacketCable/NCS). Support is also provided for the addition of OEM custom packages and for minimising core product and package footprint for low-end applications. The rich feature set and complete component coverage gives DC-MGCP and DC-Megaco the performance, scalability and reliability required for the most demanding media gateway control applications.

"Many public and private network providers are looking to build next generation distributed switching networks carrying converged voice/data traffic," said Ben Miller, Manager of Data Connection's Network Convergence Group. "DC-MGCP and DC-Megaco provide the key software components OEMs need to build the devices that underpin those networks."

"OEMS require MGCP and Megaco software which is robust, reliable and adaptable to a wide range of uses. The DC-MGCP/DC-Megaco architecture has included these features from day one, along with fault tolerance, redundancy and portability. By utilizing our products and expertise, equipment vendors can reduce development cost and time to market, while being confident of meeting their customers' most stringent quality and reliability requirements. They also get the benefit of our continuing product development and an easy upgrade path to new features."

DC-MGCP and DC-Megaco integrate seamlessly with DCL's ATM, MPLS, SS7 and other converged network products, and use the same proven N-BASE communications execution environment. The N-BASE has been ported to a large number of operating systems including VxWorks, pSOS, Chorus, Nucleus, Solaris, HP-UX and Windows NT, and has been used on all common processors including x86, i960, Motorola 860, Sparc, IDT and MIPS. Proprietary OSs and chipsets can be supported with minimal effort.

About Data Connection Limited

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of ATM, MPLS, SS7, Conferencing, Unified Messaging, Directory and SNA portable products. Customers include 3Com, Cabletron, Cisco, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM Corp., Lucent, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, NCR, SGI and Sun. Data Connection is headquartered in London UK, with US offices in Reston, VA and Alameda, CA. It was founded in 1981 and is privately held. During each of the past 18 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue. Last year sales exceeded $30M, of which 90% were outside the UK, mostly in the US, leading to the company's second Queen's Award for outstanding export performance.

For information, contact Matthew Finlayson by email at [e-mail], phone [phone], or visit our Web site at http://www.datcon.co.uk/MGCP/MGCPidx.htm .

Data Connection is a trademark of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.