Data Connection ships first fault-tolerant SIP Protocol Software; Product family is first to allow OEMs to produce highly-available SIP equipment.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2001

In response to industry demands for a fault-tolerant SIP implementation, Data Connection Limited (DCL) today announced immediate availability for the latest release of its DC-SIP product.

"Non-stop availability is the key requirement for Service Providers deploying telephony products," stated Matthew Finlayson, General Manager of DCL's Voice Networking Group. "With DCL's experience of carrier-class networking, we have produced the first source-code SIP solution which delivers non-disruptive failover of calls. Our OEM customers can now deploy SIP in production networks, confident that they can provide the characteristics required for the telco market-place."

The DC-SIP product provides OEMs with a flexible source code implementation of the SIP protocol, including both end point and server function together with a wide range of optional extensions. It runs within DCL's unique "N-BASE" development environment which provides benefits including performance, portability and distribution across hardware and processors. DC-SIP is provided pre-ported to Windows, Solaris, Linux, VxWorks, OSE and LynxOS.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is an important and evolving protocol for initiating interactive communication sessions between users. The uses for such sessions include voice, video, chat and instant messaging, as well as interactive games and virtual reality.

It is a protocol developed by the MMUSIC and SIP working groups of the IETF and is an alternative to the ITU Recommendation H.323. It is a text-based protocol based on HTTP which is more lightweight and general-purpose than H.323. SIP can be used to control Internet multimedia conferences, Internet telephone calls and multimedia distribution. It is envisaged that SIP will be used in both the core and the periphery of the future communications network.

About Data Connection Limited

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of SIP, MGCP/Megaco, SCTP, IP Routing, MPLS, ATM, Conferencing, Unified Messaging, Directory and SNA portable products.

Customers include Cisco, Convergent, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM Corp., Lucent, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, SGI, Siemens, Sun and Telica. 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 20 years its profits have exceeded 20% of revenue.

Last year sales exceeded $35M, of which 90% were outside the UK, mostly in the US. In 1999 the company received its 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.dataconnection.com.

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.