Data Connection Expands Its IMS-Enabling Technologies.

DCL Adds New Products and Enhancements to Its Suite of Protocol Solutions Greatly Reducing OEM Engineering Cost, Time to Market, and Risk for Development of IMS Products

LONDON -- Data Connection Limited (DCL), the world's leading independent provider of communications protocol software, today announces both new products, and enhancements to existing products, to enable communications system vendors to develop carrier-class IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capabilities quickly and cost-effectively.

Data Connection's IMS-enabling products and features include the following:

* Introduction of P-CSCF, IBCF, and BGF/I-BGF IMS functionality to DC-SBC, DCL's portable Session Border Controller software solution for OEMs

* Introduction of the DC-Diameter toolkit including full IMS functionality

* IMS Enhancements for the DC-SIP toolkit

* IMS Enhancements for the DC-Megaco/H.248 toolkit

The introduction of IMS-enabling technologies expands upon Data Connection's extremely successful VoIP product line, which includes DC-SBC, DC-SIP, DC-Megaco/H.248 and DC-MGCP. Almost every major vendor worldwide is already deploying at least some elements of these building blocks. Data Connection's VoIP and IMS products offer the most scaleable, flexible and highly reliable solutions in the industry, making them the preferred solution among vendors of IMS and carrier grade equipment.

Phil McConnell, CEO of DCL's Networking Protocols Division, commented "While IMS has attracted a great deal of media attention over the last 18 months, a major factor constraining real-world deployment of IMS networks has been the lack of equipment genuinely supporting the features and interfaces defined by the IMS standards. Today's announcement will enable equipment vendors to enter the IMS marketplace without the expense, risk and long timeframes inherent in attempting to develop these highly complex IMS functions in-house."

A brief overview of Data Connection's IMS enabled products and solutions is provided below. For more details please visit www.dataconnection.com/voip/voipimssolutions.htm.

IMS P-CSCF, IBCF, and BGF/I-BGF Functions for DC-SBC

DC-SBC is Data Connection's fully portable carrier-class Session Border Controller software solution for system vendors. With this announcement it adds support for the following IMS capabilities defined by the 3GPP, ETSI TISPAN, IETF, and ITU IMS standards:

* Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF)

* Interconnect Border Control Function (IBCF)

* Border Gateway Function (BGF) / Interconnect BGF (I-BGF).

IMS Enabled DC-Diameter Toolkit

DC-Diameter enables developers to quickly create applications implementing Diameter-based interfaces. It is extremely extensible, and includes an easy to use base protocol API as well as extended support for IMS Subscription (Sh, Ph, Dh), Policy (Gq', Rq, e2), and Charging (Rf, Ro) interfaces.

DC-Diameter includes the scalability, reliability and flexibility characteristics that have long been fundamental principles of all DCL software. It is based on a modular architecture that allows the distribution of specific functions across processors or linecards and fully supports redundant configurations and in-service software upgrade/downgrade.

IMS Enabled DC-SIP Toolkit

DC-SIP, which is used by many of the world's largest manufacturers of VoIP/Multimedia equipment, is enhanced to allow speedy assimilation into IMS environments. These enhancements include IPv6 functionality, signaling compression (SigComp), ENUM, session timers, and support for IPSec, AKA, and IMS-specific SIP headers. These enhancements enable DC-SIP to be utilized in all SIP-based IMS applications, including Application Server, CSCF, Gateway, and User Element.

IMS Enabled DC-Megaco/H.248 Toolkit

DC-Megaco/H248 is enhanced to support ITU H.248.1 version 3, which includes new diagnostic capabilities, stream level statistics, and the message segmentation package. Data Connection's DC-Megaco/H.248 is fully compliant with 3GPP, ETSI TISPAN, IETF, and ITU IMS architectures and enables solutions based on DC-Megaco/H.248 to support the IMS Ia reference point.

This is the first in a series of significant milestones that Data Connection is planning that will move forward the industry's state of IMS readiness

Pedigree

Data Connection leveraged its expertise of VoIP, signaling, routing, QoS, security and many other aspects of next generation networking to deliver this comprehensive set of IMS-enabling technologies. For 25 years Data Connection has been providing portable software solutions to system vendors and has established mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships with many of the world's leading equipment manufacturers.

About Data Connection

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of IMS, SIP, Megaco/H.28, MGCP, SBC, Unicast and Multicast IP Routing, MPLS, ATM, and SNA portable products, as well as Web Conferencing, Voicemail, Unified Messaging, and Directory applications. The company's MetaSwitch Division supplies IMS switching and applications solutions to service providers. Its widely deployed call agent, media/signaling gateway and application server platform provides an integrated solution offering a full range of legacy Class 4/5 capabilities and unified communications services. The Internet Applications Division focuses on large-scale application requirements. It supplies its IMS-compliant UC-Portal messaging and application services platform, together with a comprehensive set of Systems Integration engineering, migration and support services, to tier 1 service providers for IMS and PSTN deployments.

Customers include the world's largest software and hardware vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft, and major telecommunications service providers such as AT&T, BT, France Telecom and Verizon. With over 360 employees, Data Connection is headquartered in London, UK with US offices in Alameda, CA, Boxborough, MA, Dallas, TX and Reston, VA. For more information, please see www.dataconnection.com and www.metaswitch.com.